2024-04-25-Las-Vegas-Weekly

KENTUCKY DERBY

SATURDAY, MAY 4

GRAND BALLROOM • OPENS AT 9AM

FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS

BETTING WINDOWS & KIOSKS

(Closes After Kentucky Derby Payoffs)

HAT CONTEST AT 2PM

2 PM

Prizes for Most Elegant, Best Horse

Themed, Best Fascinator or Fedora & Best Overall. Other Giveaways Too! Details in the Race Book.

HANDICAPPING SEMINAR

FRIDAY, MAY 3 • 6PM IN THE GRANDVIEW LOUNGE

Hosted by Ralph Siraco with Handicappers Jon Lindo & Jon Hardoon

SUPERGUIDE

THURSDAY APR 25

JAKE JACOBSON

9 p.m., Stoney’s North Forty, tixr.com.

HOME + HISTORY

LAS VEGAS

HERITAGE FESTIVAL

The ninth annual version of this four-day event presented by the Nevada Preservation Foundation brings the opportunity to explore some significant Vegas spaces that aren’t as familiar as Strip spots but are no less essential to defining the way the city looks and feels.

G

Home + History is a collection of dozens of tours and events, kicking o with a free happy hour at Frankie’s Tiki Room and a county proclamation ceremony at the Cue Club in Commercial Center. If those venues have piqued your interest, explore the Huntridge and Marycrest Districts walking tour, a Fremont Street stroll that will take you inside the first hotel room in Las Vegas, and educational events addressing local landscaping, interior design and sourcing supplies for vintage-era renovation projects. Find your connection to authentic Vegas here. Thru 4/28, times & venues & prices vary (starting at $15), nev adapreservation.org/ home-history-las-vegas-2024/.

–Brock Radke

FRIDAY APR 26

TYLER HENRY

7 p.m., Westgate International Theater, ticket master.com

DOWN & DERBY

10 p.m., Gold Spike, sk8party. com

LEON BRIDGES

With Neek Lopez, 8 p.m., Theater at Virgin, axs.com

GARTH BROOKS

8 p.m., & 4/27, 4/28, the Colosseum, ticket master.com

BRING ME THE HORIZON

With Spiritbox, 8 p.m., & 4/26, BleauLive Theater, ticketmaster. com

CHEVELLE

7:30 p.m., House of Blues, concerts. livenation.com

JULIA JACKLIN

7 p.m., Beverly Theater, thebev erlytheater.com

FRONT 242 & NITZER EBB

7:15 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticket master.com

BRUCE COCKBURN

7 p.m., Myron’s, thesmithcenter. com

ANGELMAKER

With Signs of the Swarm, Annelida, 7 p.m., Sin Wave, dice.fm

JUPITER STRING QUARTET

7:30 p.m., Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center, unlv.edu

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: MACBETH

1 p.m., Heritage Park Senior Center, cityof henderson.com

ELDERBROOK

10:30 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zouk grouplv.com

JAY LUMEN With Bad Beat, Huerta, 10 p.m., Discopussy, seetickets.us

DJ E-ROCK

10:30 p.m., Tao Nightclub, taogroup.com

THE ACADEMY

10:30 p.m., LIV Nightclub, livnightclub.com

(Courtesy)

PLAN YOUR WEEK AHEAD

KYLIE MINOGUE

9:30 p.m., & 4/27, Voltaire, ticketmaster.com

MOVEMENTS

6:30 p.m., House of Blues, concerts. livenation.com

SCORPIONS

8 p.m., & 4/28, 5/1, Bakkt Theater, ticketmaster.com

STATIC-X & SEVENDUST

With Dope, Lines of Loyalty, 6 p.m., Pearl Concert Theater, ticketmaster.com

WAGE WAR & NOTHING MORE

With Veil of Maya, Sleep Theory, 5:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticketmaster.com

LIT

9 p.m., Fremont Street Experience, vegasexperience. com

VONDA SHEPARD

7 p.m., & 4/27, Myron’s, thesmith center.com

KYLIE MORGAN

10 p.m., Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, etix.com

ADAM ANT

MARIAH CAREY

8 p.m., & 4/27, Dolby Live, ticketmaster.com

SMOKEY ROBINSON

8:30 p.m., & 4/27, Venetian Theatre, ticketmaster.com

SHEENA EASTON

Thru 4/28, 7:30 p.m., South Point Showroom, ticketmaster. com

HOLO HOLO MUSIC FESTIVAL

With Kolohe Kai, J Boog, Common Kings, The Green, more, thru 4/28, times vary, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, tixr. com

KENAN’S POP-UP COMEDY FEST

Thru 4/28, times vary, Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club, ticketmaster.com

ALI WONG

7:30 & 10:30 p.m., & 4/27, Encore Theater, ticketmaster.com

LAS VEGAS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FESTIVAL Thru 5/4, times & venues vary, scifest.vegas

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Thru 5/5, times vary, Judy Bayley Theatre, unlv.edu

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Thru 4/28, times vary, Charleston Heights Arts Center, lasvegasnevada.gov

ZHU

10:30 p.m., LIV Nightclub, livnightclub.com

WIZ KHALIFA

10:30 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com

DIPLO

10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com

In the late 1970s, musician and actor Stuart Godard assumed the look of a 1700s rogue and took to calling himself Adam Ant—the name of the biblical first man, coupled with an insect with strong survival instincts. Those instincts would serve him well through the years. When Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren essentially stole his band Adam and the Ants (renaming them Bow Wow Wow), Ant assembled a new band with guitarist Marco Pirroni and made some of his biggest hits, like “Goody Two Shoes” and “Desperate But Not Serious.” He modified his approach as tastes changed, dropping alt-pop hits like “Wonderful” well into the 1990s. And when nostalgic fans and new, young converts came looking for him, he donned pirate swag and went hard on his driving, louche 1980s classics with the Ants—“Stand and Deliver,” “Prince Charming,” “Antmusic”—delivering them with swagger and panache. This ant won’t be crushed. With the English Beat. 7 p.m., $39, Event Lawn at Virgin, etix.com. –Geoff Carter

(Courtesy/Edward Cooke)

SUPERGUIDE

SATURDAY APR 27

SICK NEW WORLD FESTIVAL With System of a Down, Slipknot, A Perfect Circle, Danny Elfman, more, 11 a.m., Las Vegas Festival Grounds, sicknew worldfest.com

WU BAI & CHINA BLUE

8 p.m., Resorts World Theatre, axs.com

XAVI

7:30 p.m., House of Blues, concerts. livenation.com

HOT MULLIGAN With Free Throw, Just Friends, Charmer, 6:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticketmaster.com

TIGIRLILY GOLD

9 p.m., Stoney’s North Forty, tixr. com

LA LOM

7 p.m., Fergusons Downtown, tickets. wethebeat.com

ARIZONA ZERVAS

7 p.m., the Wall at Area15, area15.com

NEVADA BALLET THEATRE:

SWAN LAKE

Thru 5/5, times vary, Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter. com

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS.

DALLAS STARS

7:30 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com

VEGAS KNIGHT HAWKS VS. DUKE

CITY GLADIATORS

6 p.m., Lee’s Family Forum, axs.com

OPPORTUNITY

VILLAGE SPRING FEST

9 a.m., Magical Forest, opportunity village.org

BRIAN KILMEADE

7 p.m., Grand Events Center, ticketmaster.com

KASKADE

Noon, Ayu Dayclub, zoukgrouplv.com

GUCCI MANE

10:30 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com

KYGO

10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com

TIËSTO 11 a.m., Wet Republic, taogroup.com

STEVE AOKI

11 a.m., Tao Beach Dayclub, taogroup.com

ALAN WALKER

10:30 p.m., LIV Nightclub, livnightclub.com

TONI

8

[camera icon]

BRAXTON & CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER

p.m., the Chelsea, ticketmaster.com

PLAN YOUR WEEK AHEAD

SUNDAY APR 28 MONDAY APR 29

TYGA 11 a.m., Tao Beach Dayclub, taogroup. com

LIL JON 11 a.m., Wet Republic, taogroup. com

RICH THE KID Noon, Daylight Beach Club, tixr. com

AFROJACK Noon, Encore Beach Club, wynnsocial. com

AFAN AIDS WALK 9 a.m., Las Vegas Ballpark, afanlv. org

XS NIGHTSWIM

SEASON OPENER: DAVID GUETTA 10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

(Courtesy/Danny Mahoney)

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS. DALLAS STARS Time TBD, T-Mobile Arena, axs.com

UNLV SPRING

JAZZ FESTIVAL

7:30 p.m., Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall, unlv.edu

MIKE ATTACK

10:30 p.m., Jewel Nightclub, taogroup.com

GREG STONE With Landry, Lynne Koplitz, John Joseph, 7 & 9:30 p.m., & 4/30, Comedy Cellar, ticketmaster.com

LUENELL

9:30 p.m., Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club, ticketmaster. com

FILM: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

5 p.m., Beverly Theater, thebever lytheater.com

LAMB OF GOD

With Kublai Khan TX, Incindiary, 6 p.m., House of Blues, con certs.live nation.com

DO IT ALL

THE GARDEN With Fury, 7:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticket master.com

SUPERGUIDE

TUESDAY

ACADEMY OF NEVADA BALLET

THEATRE: ENCHANTED FOREST & NEXTGEN24 5 & 7:30 p.m., Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter. com

LAS VEGAS AVIATORS VS. RENO ACES Thru 5/5, times vary, Las Vegas Ballpark, ticketmaster. com

FAB AFFAIR 6 p.m., Superfrico, spiegelworld. com

MARIO 10 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com

MALA With Lion Eyes, Layer, 10 p.m., Discopussy, discopussydtlv. com

NGHTMRE 10:30 p.m., Omnia Nightclub, taogroup. com

INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL

If Oppenheimer was only the beginning of your deep dive into the complicated and fascinating history of the Atomic Age, you’re in luck. The International Uranium Festival has been touring North America since its launch last month at the Navajo Nation Museum in Arizona, and it’s landing at Downtown’s Beverly Theater for two days. Planned are 11 screenings of documentaries and other works intended to open eyes “about risks and consequences of uranium mining, the use of nuclear power, nuclear arms and uranium weapons,” according to co-founder Norbert G. Suchanek. Hosted in Las Vegas by the Native Community Action Council, the event will include films such as 1990 documentary Building Bombs, and last year’s Demon Mineral, a portrait of life in the radioactive desert on the Navajo Reservation in our neighboring southwest states. Times vary, & 5/1, uraniumfilmfestival.org. –Brock Radke

VEGAS THRILL VS. ORLANDO VALKYRIES 7 p.m., Lee’s Family Forum, axs.com

LEI DAY PARADE 6 p.m., Downtown Summerlin, summerlin. com

UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE FILM COMEDY SHOWCASE

7 p.m., Composers Room, thecomposersroom.com EFF HAMILTON TRIO

7 p.m., & 5/2, Vic’s, vics lasvegas.com

GRYFFIN

10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial. com

“THERE’S

Ears ringing after concerts and club nights?

Invest in good earplugs before it’s too late

BY AMBER SAMPSON

Wearing earplugs might seem trivial to the seasoned concertgoer, but if you want to avoid hearing damage this festival season, hear us out.

“Once it’s done, there isn’t anything that you can do to reverse it,”

UNLV Health senior audiologist Jennifer Cornejo says.

Loud noise exposure can cause hearing loss, the ringing repercussions of tinnitus, and hyperacusis—which makes ordinary noises painful—sometimes causing this damage overnight. Cornejo says ringing, buzzing or hissing that goes away is considered a temporary threshold shift, but with more exposure, it becomes permanent.

“OSHA standards [say] anything over 85 decibels for longer than eight hours, you are at risk for ear damage,” she says. “What happens above that, though, is exponential. If you even go up a simple 10 dB up to 95, you’re only safe for four hours.”

Indoor concerts, which range from 95 to 110 decibels, are louder than festivals, where “the sound is escaping up,” Cornejo says. The audiologist recommends downloading a sound level meter on your phone to determine the safest place to stand.

Pulsar Presents promoter Patrick Trout passes out earplugs at his shows to help protect peoples’ hearing. “With how heavy my calendar skews and how loud the bands I book are, I felt like it was a basic courtesy,” he says. “There’s a lot of times where people walk in and don’t think they’re going to need them, and then they realize a couple songs in, ‘Yeah, maybe I should grab some.’ Having that peace of mind is great.”

As for which kind of earplugs to get, that’s up to you. Cheap foam earplugs can reduce 20-30 decibels, but sound quality will su er. You might consider investing a bit more in custom plugs with decibel lters, or in one of the sets reviewed here, because they aren’t just handy for concerts. Sporting events and loud movie theaters are loud enough to cause hearing damage. Looking at you, Dune: Part 2.

ETYMOTIC ETY PLUGS

HIGH FIDELITY EARPLUGS

Noise reduction: 20 dB

Price: $14-$19

These cone-shaped plugs, while less discreet, t snugly into the ear canal, reducing unwanted noise by 20 decibels across all frequencies. I stood near the front of a Sleater-Kinney concert at Brooklyn Bowl and could detect the crisp licks of Carrie Brownstein’s guitar without drowning out Corin Tucker’s vocals. These plugs also took the sting out of a thundering metal show I enjoyed at the Dive Bar. –Amber Sampson

MINUENDO LOSSLESS ADJUSTABLE EARPLUGS

Noise reduction: 7-25 dB

Price: $133

Inside Minuendo’s durable yet lightweight earplugs is a membrane—the company describes it as a “second eardrum”—that can be adjusted, via small levers on each plug, to reduce sound levels by 7 to 25dB while preserving important sonic details. I tested mine at Discopussy, where I clearly discerned the high-end sounds that might otherwise have been lost in London Elektricity’s bass-heavy set, and again a few weeks later at Bruce Springsteen’s T-Mobile Arena show, where they took the edge o the crowd roar. These things are the real boss. –Geo Carter

LOOP EXPERIENCE

Noise reduction: 18 dB

Price: $35

These trendy plugs have a tight pro le—few are likely to spot you wearing them—and have looped handles that make them easy to put in and take out, even in dark, busy environments. They come with a handy storage case and four interchangeable ear tip sizes, and they’ll handily turn down the volume on concerts, festivals and large events. –Shannon Miller

EARGASM EARPLUGS

Noise reduction: 21 dB

Price: $44

My idea of hearing protection extended to two extremes: cheap foam plugs that mu ed the loudest amps or expensive in-ear sets that were only used by professional musicians. Eargasm’s High Fidelity earplugs changed that. After standing speaker side at a Dive Bar blues show, I was surprised at the authentic sound coming through, and completely satis ed with the comfort.

–Gabriela Rodriguez

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Physicians

SICK NEW WORLD SIDESHOW FT.

WITH DOPE & LINES OF LOYALTY STATIC-X & SEVENDUST

FRIDAY | APRIL 26

CARLOS BALLARTA

TLATOANI

FRIDAY | MAY 3

AMON AMARTH

METAL CRUSHES ALL TOUR WITH CANNIBAL CORPSE, OBITUARY & FROZEN SOUL

FRIDAY | MAY 24

BABYFACE LIVE IN LAS VEGAS

SATURDAY & SUNDAY | MAY 25 & 26

RADICAL STREAM

Extremism has found a home online 10 years after the Bundy standoff in Nevada

BY SHANNON MILLER

Ten years ago this month, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his family hosted a swarm of armed protesters at their ranch in Bunkerville, 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The gathering was a sort of Woodstock for anti-government militias that were, in their view, defending the Bundys from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The BLM was attempting to collect $1 million owed in grazing fees, which Bundy had unsuccessfully disputed for more than two decades, by impounding Bundy’s cattle. As the Bundys spewed long rants about their so-called Constitutional rights, they called on militias to come to their aid. Right-wing media and online forums caught on and eventually, protesters and heavily armed militia groups like the then-relatively unknown Oath Keepers (whose leaders and members were convicted of federal crimes for their role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol) flocked to the ranch.

After tense, armed confrontations, on April 12, 2014, the BLM called off the roundup. But that wasn’t enough for the Bundys. They marched with hundreds of protesters to the pens where the BLM was keeping the impounded cows, pointed their guns at federal agents and demanded that the cattle be released. After the standoff, which easily could have turned into a shootout, federal agents stood down and released the cattle. (Cliven, Ryan and Ammon Bundy later were jailed but were cleared of conspiracy charges in 2018 after a judge declared a mistrial in their case.)

The event was seen as a major victory and rallying moment for anti-government militias, who have grown stronger, especially during the pandemic. In many cases it was the first time leaders in these movements met face-toface. The Bundy standoff also was part of a nationwide narrative of violent extremism that has continued to grow, and has festered with the widespread use of social media and online platforms.

Brian Hughes, co-founder and associate director with American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), says the Bundy standoff is just one instance where people have been radical-

ized to act violently in order to affirm or live out their ideologies. More recently, social media and other online platforms have helped facilitate Stop the Steal protests, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, armed men storming the Michigan statehouse and plots and threats against officials, and have encouraged a climate of violent online threats by the far right against their fellow Americans.

“We talk about mobilizing concepts where these extremist groups, using online communication technology, were able to get those radicalized rank and files to act in a certain way around certain issues,” Hughes says.

“COVID-19 was a tremendous moment for radicalizing content and radicalizing vulnerabilities … the sense that something had been taken away, and people needed someone to blame. And extremist groups understood this. And I think that without the specific intersection of conditions, January 6 would not have happened the way that it did.”

The pathway to an armed standoff with federal agents may seem narrow. However, extremists like the Bundys and their circle tend to take advantage of certain “grievances” or social-emotional “vulnerabilities” when recruiting members to join their calls to action, Hughes adds. In 2014, the Bundys were able to speak to

peoples’ different grievances with the federal government and unite them under one banner.

“The expression of extremism and political violence is different in different regions and across different cultures. But there’s very little difference between the underlying risk factors that seem to lead people down those pathways to radicalization,” Hughes says. “Grievance and other social and emotional vulnerabilities like trauma or precarity can lead a person in a lot of different pathological directions. [And] a person needs to encounter radicalizing material or radicalizing social groups in order for those grievances to be translated into political extremism.”

UNLV professor of sociology

Robert Futrell, who specializes in social movements and has written two books about the rise of white supremacy in the U.S., says growth in extremist networks is rooted in a very human process: people just seeking a sense of belonging.

“Everybody’s seeking some meaning for their lives. And extremists tend to find it in those networks,” Futrell says. “There might have been some sort of trauma they attribute to some group or some entity. … They [then] find a group that cares about them and speaks to some of their fears, maybe what they think are threats, and the ideology helps to explain what was previously unexplainable.”

The goal is recruitment. And that is where the internet and social media come in.

“Before the internet, a person would have to be very unlucky to encounter enough radicalizing material, or individuals, to turn their grievances into a radicalization pathway,” Hughes says. “You had to sort of become enmeshed in that social circle in order to become radicalized that way. … Nowadays, when you go online, you can’t avoid propaganda. White supremacist and other extremist propaganda is fed to you, whether you like it or not.”

“COVID-19 was a tremendous moment for radicalizing content … and extremist groups understood this. And I think that without the specific intersection of conditions, January 6 would not have happened the way that it did.”

–Brian Hughes, co-founder, Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab

Cliven Bundy, right, talks with militia members at his family’s ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada, April 13, 2014. (Steve Marcus/Staff)

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

The Bundys subscribe to sovereign citizen ideology, or the belief that self-named “sovereign citizens” are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and therefore exempt from U.S. law, hence the refusal to pay grazing fees that every other rancher had to pay to the BLM. The radical viewpoint has gained even broader appeal in recent years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremists and hate groups.

“Sovereign citizen groups, which are under the umbrella of anti-government groups, saw a diversifying of the people joining those groups. So, a growing appeal to younger, female and more a uent members,” says Lydia Bates, program manager of partnerships with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

That growing appeal could be the result of a concerted e ort among extremists to change their branding to attract broader swaths of people, a trend that Futrell has noticed among white supremacists. He points to the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

“People were aghast at the Charlottesville Unite the Right weekend in part because many of the people there … with the tiki torches, didn’t look like white supremacists in this stereotypical way,” Futrell says. “And so, … they’re shifting the rhetoric; they’re covering their tattoos; they’re talking about in ltrating institutions. They’re talking about a concerted e ort to mask true intentions, to no longer look like the hooded Klansmen or belligerent, in-your-face stereotypical neo-Nazi skinhead, and to do things di erently in order to gain power.”

Bates gives the example of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a white supremacist group that is active in Nevada according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“They t under our hate group

“They’re shifting the rhetoric; they’re covering their tattoos; they’re talking about infiltrating institutions. They’re talking about a concerted effort to mask true intentions, to no longer look like the hooded Klansmen or belligerent, in-your-face stereotypical neo-Nazi skinhead, and to do things differently in order to gain power.”

– Robert Futrell, professor of sociology, UNLV

umbrella and on an ideology that’s called Neo-Völkish, [which] is basically taking Norse paganism imagery and mythology and making it racist. Asatru as an actual Icelandic religion is not inherently racist. … But the Asatru Folk Assembly and other Neo-Völkish groups like it have taken that and made it a whites-only group,” Bates says.

She adds that radicalizing content may not start out as overtly radical, but can escalate. Di erent talking points can lead into radical ideologies like the great replacement theory, which is an anti-immigrant and racist belief in a worldwide plot to diminish the in uence of white people.

great replacement theory or male supremacy talking points.”

“When you’re exposed to some types of extremist content, it might seem relatively innocuous; it might not seem that crazy. It might be some Norse pagan symbolism, which isn’t inherently racist. And then they start introducing you to ideas like the

The e ort to mask radical ideologies online makes radicalization more insidious, as peoples’ curiosity can cause them to stumble into rabbit holes of radical and extremist content. When coupled with the use of “alt-media” platforms where radical and extremist views can be shared more openly, extremists have the means of taking unsuspecting users down a deep rabbit hole, indoctrinating users in their ideologies.

“There’s also a range of what’s now called alt media … more fringe platforms [like] Parler, Discord, Telegram. There’s an ecosystem out there that goes from more private to more public. And as people navigate and step into the various rabbit holes that exist for getting into online extremism, you can pretty easily nd your way to those, and sometimes they nd you,” Futrell says.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU NOTICE SOMEONE BEING RADICALIZED ONLINE

BY SHANNON MILLER

 How does one become radicalized? Why does it happen, and what are the signs?

UNLV professor of sociology Robert Futrell says the process is based on the human need for connection and purpose.

“People might be more or less susceptible based on various types of variables. But the overall process is one that anyone could understand—searching for friendship, connection, meaning,” Futrell says.

Brian Hughes, co-founder of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, says the common underlying risk factors for radicalization are grievance and social-emotional vulnerabilities like trauma and precarity.

“If a person is at a major turning point in their life, where their sense of where they belong in the world is suddenly up in the air: that’s a time when a person is a little more vulnerable,” Hughes says.

The signs that someone is starting to be exposed to radicalizing content can be subtle. But the most noticeable one is a “change in a ect.”

(Shutterstock/Photo Illustrations)

“So a change in the way a person is expressing themselves emotionally and socially. If a person begins to carry themselves in a more hostile way, in a more combative way, and if that change in a ect is connected with changes in the viewpoints that they’re expressing, then that’s a pretty good indicator that they might be going down a pathway of some kind,” Hughes says.

If you believe someone is going down a rabbit hole of radicalization, it can be very di cult to get them out of it, he adds. One approach is to attempt to resolve the person’s vulnerabilities that might

make them turn to extremism.

“It’s not really worth it to argue with them. Instead, you should look at why they might be vulnerable. Do they have unaddressed trauma? Do they have professional grievances? Or are they having a crisis of identity? If you can address those underlying issues, very often the symptoms of radicalization will dissipate on their own,” Hughes says.

Lydia Bates, program manager of partnerships with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, says we should especially be on the lookout for people going down radicalization pathways as we still deal with the aftermath of COVID.

“People su ered economically during COVID-19 and continue to su er. So that also impacts radicalization, you’re su ering from that trauma from that uncertainty,” Bates says.

When it comes to counteracting radicalization, “don’t counterpoint their misinformation,” she says, “as that might cause them to double down. Instead, come from a place of curiosity to find out what they’re being exposed to and pull at the strings of that conversation.”

It’s also important to under-

stand you might not be the best person to intervene, Bates says.

“There might be somebody in your community who is more equipped to intervene, who has a closer relationship with the person that you saw posting the disinformation. It could be like a religious leader, who might have an in and an ability to ask them those open-ended questions to get at what is driving their vulnerability to these extremist ideologies, what is making them susceptible.”

Don’t share misinformation or o ensive content, even if it’s funny, she adds.

If you believe there is a threat to public safety, it is important to report a tip to the proper authorities. The Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center receives and responds to suspicious activity reports in Clark County. The Nevada Threat Analysis Center serves Nevada’s other 16 counties.

To report suspicious activity specifically in Clark County, call 702-828-7777 or submit a tip on snctc.org.

To report suspicious activity in all other counties in Nevada, call 844-SEE-SAIT (844-733-7248) or email KeepNevadaSafe@dps. state.nv.us.

The Bundys’ rallying cry started in April 2014. Then in 2015, Donald Trump entered the picture. His spewing of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric, as well as his appointing of senior advisors like Steve Bannon of the far-right news media outlet Breitbart News Network, signaled to extremists that it was OK to come out.

of disinformation, especially related to voting and the election, as the year played out.

It also saw more concerted e orts among extremist groups to take action in person.

ONLINE EXTREMISM IN THE AGE OF COVID MOVING FORWARD

“White supremacists saw him as an ally, that there was an opportunity to come out of hiding and be more public and put on a stronger face for white supremacy than what they had been able to do before,” Futrell says. “Charlottesville was a perfect example of that, and his response that there were ‘good people on both sides’— that blew up across the extremist networks as ‘Hey, he’s not against us. We’ve got an ally!’ … His Proud Boys statement ‘Stand back and stand by’ becomes super important to racist networks.”

So there was this environment for white supremacists and conspiracy theories like QAnon to thrive. And then came COVID. With social distancing and isolation, people spent vastly more time online and some were exposed to far less dissenting opinions, creating echo chambers—another fertile ground for radicalization.

“People were joining these online communities, where there’s no dissenting opinions; there’s no di ering worldviews [and] people are just saying the same thing over and over again, and cementing each other’s worldviews,” Bates says. “That was a really big issue in terms of people being exposed to extreme content and becoming more susceptible to radicalizing.”

Shutdowns in March 2020, then virtual school and work, mass furloughs, layo s and uncertainty created precarity and vulnerabilities nationwide. During that time, recruitment for extremist demonstrations was rife. The Southern Poverty Law Center saw the spread

Rachel Goldwasser, senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center, says the organization saw a proliferation of Boogaloo Boys in Nevada, a farright, anti-government extremist group that says it wants a second civil war and the collapse of society. In Las Vegas, three men alleged to be members of the movement were arrested in May 2020 and charged with conspiracy to cause destruction during Black Lives Matter rallies, as well as the possession of Molotov cocktails. According to court documents, the group plotted to bomb a power substation or federal property and incite chaos and a possible riot.

“There were quite a lot of Boogaloos that were there, especially in 2020. … And I think this idea of armed resistance appeals to them, which is something that could have

been in some way grown from Bundy ranch,” Goldwasser says. “Most far right movements have cross-pollination in their membership numbers. So people got into QAnon as adherents and supporters, and then moved into sovereign citizenship, [or] people who were brand-new anti-vaxxers that moved into the sovereign citizens movement. So groups are also adding people in that way, where they start with one movement and go to believing multiple things that are extreme.”

The pandemic created the perfect conditions for the cross pollination of extremist ideas and concerted actions. There were also ample opportunities to convince people of radical worldviews and pull them into less mainstream platforms like Parler, which was essential in plotting and carrying out the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

“Online extremism, speci cally [inviting] people to in-person [events], is what sort of brought on January 6,” Goldwasser says. “Unfortunately, it’s the online element that was sort of the catalyst—people being able to spread information, especially conspiracy theories related to the election, like lightning around the internet, and then also being

able to coordinate events related to conspiracy theories and other ideological beliefs that move people to physical action.”

The Bundy stando , Trump, COVID, January 6—experts draw a line between these events. The question is, what’s next?

If last year’s data is any indicator, the Southern Poverty Law Center saw increases in white nationalist activity, male supremacy groups and anti-semitic incidents in 2023. Just in March, dozens of neo-Nazis marched through downtown Nashville.

The Secure Community Network tracks threats and acts of violence against the Jewish community across the U.S. CEO Michael Masters says such demonstrations need to be taken seriously. That’s one of the rst steps in ad-

“There is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that foreign state and nonstate actors are encouraging, creating and sewing these messages with the ultimate intent of disrupting U.S. society, and undermining the very principles and ideas of our country.”

–Michael Masters, CEO, Secure Community Network

dressing violent extremism.

“When the individuals in Charlottesville were saying ‘Jews will not replace us’ and when individuals are carrying the ags of a genocidal regime … I think we should listen to them and take them seriously, and make sure we are leveraging the tools that we have … to prevent that type of hate and violence from being nurtured in our society,” Masters says.

That couldn’t be more important in an election year, when groups like Secure Com-

munity Network and the Southern Poverty Law Center continue seeing an uptick in extremism.

“One way that we see a lot of this continuing is through groups like Moms for Liberty. They’re very much fanning the ames of these conspiracy theories about anything that has to do with medicine, vaccines. They’re really going for the book bans [and] really trying to actively limit young people’s access to information, and making sure that disinformation is able to ourish,” Bates says.

“There’s also concerted e orts to spread voting disinformation … about how you vote, who can vote, where you can vote. … I think that’s absolutely something we’ll see a lot more of as November gets closer.”

She adds that hate groups currently have an “intense focus” on certain communities, including LGBTQ and immigrants.

“We saw a lot of targeting of Pride events, drag events. And a lot of that was done by this intersection of anti-LGBTQ and white nationalist groups,” Bates says. “In 2023, there was and continues to be a broad adoption of anti-immigrant rhetoric. And that will absolutely continue as we get closer to the election.”

These ideologies are problematic in themselves. But when attempting to address them, there’s a distinction between First Amendment-protected extremist speech and “violent extremism.”

“Being radicalized or extremist by themselves are not illegal. Frankly, it’s First Amendment-protected activity. People are allowed to be extremists,” Masters says. “I think part of the problem, particularly in the online space, is the explosion of content by individuals with violent, hate- lled beliefs and the seeming normalization of those behaviors.”

And then there are challenges posed by arti cial intelligence and state-sponsored disinformation, like deepfakes and bots. Just in January, a deepfake robocall was made to more than 5,000 New Hampshire voters during the state’s Democratic presidential primary, discouraging them from voting, according to NBC News.

“There is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that foreign state and nonstate actors are encouraging, creating and sewing these messages with the ultimate intent of disrupting U.S. society, and undermining the very principles and ideas of our country,” Masters says.

So what tools do we have to combat the rising tide of disinformation and hate? How do we stop the extreme from becoming mainstream? Experts say it’s best to approach the issue from a preventive standpoint.

“When we talk about what government can do, we shouldn’t be talking about what they can ban, and what they can eliminate and legislate away,” Hughes says. “We need to be talking about the positive things that government can be funding. The fact is, education is a huge part of this. The government should be funding programs that improve people’s online safety.”

PERIL has stepped in with resources tailored to speci c members of the community. Its website (perilresearch.com/resources/) has free education tools for parents, caregivers, educators, mental health counselors, policymakers, faith leaders and small businesses.

“If people become educated about the ways that propaganda manipulates them, people are better able to recognize it and resist it. And that has been demonstrated as a really e ective way to inoculate people against the radicalizing content,” Hughes says.

NEWS IN THE

1

EV CHARGING AT ALLEGIANT

NV Energy has been working with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada on sustainable solutions for transportation and tourism. As part of NV Energy’s efforts to help electrify transportation across the state, the utility has unveiled EV charging stations at Allegiant Stadium.

PETITION FOR BALLOT INITIATIVE TO ENSHRINE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN STATE CONSTITUTION GETS GREEN LIGHT

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the language in a petition for a ballot question to enshrine “reproductive rights” in the state constitution meets legal requirements for a statewide ballot initiative.

The petition, first filed in September 2023 by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom PAC, a coalition of abortion rights organizations, was challenged by the Coalition for Parents and Children PAC based on the argument that “reproductive rights” (including contraception, vasectomies and infertility treatment) was too broad for a single ballot question.

In a statement, Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom called the state Supreme Court’s ruling a “major blow to extreme anti-abortion activists who have sought to keep Nevadans from being able to vote on the future of abortion access in the state.”

However, the PAC has already turned

MAGENTA IS THE NEW RED-HOT

U.S. health and weather officials have unveiled a new color-coded system to warn Americans about heat danger, and it sets magenta as the most dangerous level.

The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used Earth Day to explain the

its attention to a narrower petition for a ballot question to enshrine “abortion rights” in the state constitution, having already gathered 160,000 signatures.

“Protecting these rights is essential to ensuring that all Nevadans maintain full control over their own lives, especially as we continue to see attacks on abortion, IVF, birth control and other reproductive health services,” reads a statement from Lindsey Harmon, president of Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom. “While we have decided to pursue a petition focused on protecting abortion rights specifically, we will continue to pursue every possible avenue to make sure that all vital reproductive health services are protected in our state’s laws.”

The coalition intends to submit the petition to the secretary of state in time for the November ballot.

–Shannon Miller

new online heat risk system. It combines meteorological and medical risk factors with a seven-day forecast that’s simplified and color-coded for a warming world of worsening heat waves.

Magenta is the deadliest category. It’s a step above red, which is also pretty bad. The difference is that red is a threat to people without adequate cooling and hydration, while magenta describes weather so hot that it threatens everyone. –Associated Press

2

HENDERSON DEVELOPMENT

Partners Capital and Cast have finalized design plans to convert a 10,000-squarefoot office complex on St. Rose Parkway south of I-215 into a “food-driven open-air lifestyle retail center.” Construction for the $30 million development, dubbed the Cliff, is expected to begin in October, with a projected opening in 2025.

IN CLARK COUNTY, OVER 30 LETTER CARRIERS HAVE BEEN THE TARGET OF ROBBERIES OR ASSAULTS OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS.

3BOYZ II MEN RETURNS

Boyz II Men, the best-selling R&B group of all time that performed a popular residency at the Mirage for nearly a decade, will play the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan August 23, 24, 30 and 31, with tickets on sale now at ticketmaster.com.

HIGH-SPEED TRAIN LINE TO CALIFORNIA BREAKS GROUND

The nation’s first true high-speed passenger rail system is within grasp with the ceremonial groundbreaking April 22 of the Brightline West link between Las Vegas and Southern California. The project, a 218-mile, all-electric rail system slated for construction along the infamously congested Interstate 15 corridor, kicked off at the site of its future Las Vegas Station in the central Valley, with hundreds in attendance.

“I am firmly convinced that once the first customer buys that first ticket to ride through high-speed rail on American soil, there will be no going back,” Pete Buttigieg, U.S. transportation secretary, said. “People will demand and expect this everywhere, and leaders will respond. And more high-speed rail lines are coming.”

The rail, with a completion target of 2028—just in time for Los Angeles to host the Summer Olympics—will travel at an average of 186 mph, cutting the commute via land between Las Vegas and Southern California down to just two hours, Buttigieg said. The zero-emissions way of transport will also lead to 800 million fewer pounds of carbon pollution annually, he added.

The $12 billion project received $3 billion in grant funding from the federal government in December, as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Train stations in Las Vegas, Victor Valley, Hesperia and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., are poised to generate as much as $10 billion in economic impact, said U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen., D-Nevada. –Katie Ann McCarver

LAW ENFORCEMENT

METRO TO PUT MORE DRONES IN SERVICE

Metro Police will start a pilot program to deploy surveillance drones more frequently alongside officers, department officials said, to increase safety of both authorities and Las Vegas residents.

The program, known as the Mobile Drones as a First Responder, or Mobile DFR, was introduced by Metro Deputy Chief Dori Koren at a news conference April 19 at Metro Headquarters. The department will begin deploying Mobile DFR-designated vehicles equipped with drones that will be able to respond to emergency situations and deploy drones immediately, somewhat similar to how Metro’s K9 patrol vehicles operate. The drones will primarily be used in environments that are more difficult or dangerous for officers to access, such as search and rescues, SWAT threat assessments and event surveillance, Koren said.

–Ayden Runnels

Phish kicked off a four-night run at Sphere on April 18 with breathtaking visuals. The next residency scheduled for the venue is Dead & Company’s Dead Forever, May 16 through July 13. Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster. com (Alive Coverage/Courtesy)

Confetti flies as, from left, Rep. Norma Torres, D-California; Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada; Brightline founder Wes Edens; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada; Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada; Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada; and Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nevada; hammer railroad spikes during Brightline West’s groundbreaking ceremony April 22. (Wade Vandervort/Staff)

MAY 4

MAY 3 FRIDAY, MAY 10

JUNE 15

‘FUN MUST BE ALWAYS’

How Tomáš Hertl is transforming the Golden Knights in more ways than one

Vegas Golden Knights center Tomáš Hertl (48) celebrates with the bench after scoring against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Dallas on April 22.

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez).

GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS. STARS SERIES SCHEDULE

BY CASE KEEFER

Tomáš Hertl reported to Las Vegas quickly after the San Jose Sharks traded him to the Golden Knights on March 8, but his family didn’t join him right away.

The 30-year-old, two-time All Star’s wife and two young sons didn’t come to town until he was done rehabbing from knee surgery in mid-April. The first game they attended at T-Mobile Arena was Hertl’s third outing as a Golden Knight, an April 12 date with the Minnesota Wild, and it didn’t go smoothly.

Well, it was perfect in the fact that they were there for Hertl’s first goal with his new team, but the crazed crowd reaction wasn’t the best for 1-year-old Theo. The Golden Knights scored seven goals to electrify the crowd—and maybe terrify Theo.

“It was a little too loud for him,” Hertl explained. “He’s not used to it. He has headphones but he’s too young for it.”

The Hertls may want to invest in heavier-duty headphones or find a more insulated suite at the arena because it looks like their patriarch is going to frenzy his new home crowd for years to come—especially during this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Game 5

(if necessary) May 1, time TBD at American Airlines Center in Dallas

Game 6

(if necessary) May 3, time TBD at T-Mobile Arena

Game 7

(if necessary) May 5, time TBD at American Airlines Center in Dallas

All games broadcasted locally on Scripps Sports, channel 34. Tickets available for home games at axs.com starting at $60.

In short order, Hertl is well on the way to holding the same fan-favorite role in Vegas as he did in San Jose.

He managed five points in his first eight games with the Golden Knights including a pair of huge goals, and helped revitalize what had been a floundering power-play unit. Hertl completed the Golden Knights’ comeback from a threegoal deficit against the Colorado Avalanche two days after the Wild victory with an overtime power-play game-winner.

Then, in Vegas’ opening game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Dallas this week, he bullied his way to the front of the net and buried a putback on a power-play as part of the Golden Knights’ 4-3 win. The

eighth-seeded Golden Knights led the top-seeded Stars 1-0 in the bestof-seven series at publication time.

The scoring burden always figured to primarily fall on Vegas stars Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault if the Golden Knights hoped to defend their Stanley Cup title. But Hertl is now categorically among the top group the team can lean on, the collection of players who will ultimately determine the fate of any repeat trophy hopes.

“He’s built for games like that,” Marchessault said of Hertl after the Game 1 win.

The only thing more infectious than Hertl’s play since joining the Golden Knights has been his attitude. Behind the captain Stone’s leadership and Marchessault’s never-ending chirpiness, the Golden Knights have long been one of the more spirited teams in the NHL.

But Hertl has brought it up a notch with his ever-present smile and bubbly personality. The Prague, Czech Republic native’s love for hockey is ever-present, and teammates have marveled that they’ve never been around someone as permanently positive.

“Fun is always, right?” coach Bruce Cassidy joked when asked about Hertl’s temperament. “People should catch up on that.”

Cassidy was referring to a line that’s become Hertl’s catchphrase during his decade in the NHL—“fun must be always.” It started when he was rookie with the Sharks and tweeted a picture of him at the end of a water aerobics class as part of his recovery from an injury.

Surrounded by an elderly classmates, Hertl beamed as always.

“Today after exercise,” the post read. “I have a lot of new young friends … Fun must be alwalys (sic).”

Hertl loves that the four-word slogan has stuck with him throughout his career, and even mentioned his desire for it to carry over to Vegas in an introductory interview

published on the team’s website.

“I’m always going to try to bring the smile to our room and I always like to smile and have fun and bring the smile to other guys,” Hertl told rinkside reporter Ashali Vise.

It’s a welcomed change considering Hertl had previously inspired a different type of reaction from the Golden Knights. As a member of the Sharks, two moments involving Hertl and the Golden Knights stand above the rest.

First, in 2019, he scored a double-overtime game-winner on Marc-André Fleury in Game 6 of the teams’ first-round playoff series. Hertl keeping the Sharks alive set up the infamous “not a major” game two days later, when the Golden Knights were eliminated from the postseason.

Then, in 2021, Hertl and Stone got into a fight during an intense regular-season game that saw the Golden Knights nab a comeback 5-4 victory. Then-Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said it felt like “April Fool’s Day” seeing the typically measured Stone and Hertl, a pair of players he coached at different spots, exchange blows.

“We always had some rivalry,” Hertl said of his relationship with Stone.

But now they’re as tight as any two players on the team as partners on the Golden Knights’ new-look second line along with Chandler Stephenson. They’ll lead Vegas for the foreseeable future, considering Hertl has six years left on his current contract while Stone still has three years left on the deal he signed upon coming to the franchise in 2019. Their potential together might be untapped, and the only certainties are that Hertl will make sure they have fun exploring it and keep T-Mobile Arena rocking.

“He’s a great guy to add to the mix,” Cassidy said. “I’m pleased with his game and that his health is good, too. You never know, coming off an injury, how it will play out for you.”

Leon Bridges wants to tend to his Texas roots in his next album

SOUTHERN SOUL

April 25, 8 p.m., $60-$80. Theater at Virgin, axs.com

MUSIC

BY AMBER SAMPSON

Leon Bridges has what they call Texas swagger. He’s a vision in bolo ties, cattleman crease cowboy hats and horsebit leather loafers. Oh yes, Bridges is southern soul personi ed and he’s damn proud of it.

The Fort Worth-raised Grammy Award winner has collaborated with several Lone Star State natives on songs, including country-bred legend Miranda Lambert and Houston’s Khruangbin, who’ve released two exceptionally groovy EPs—Texas Sun and Texas Moon—with Bridges in the last few years.

“That whole thing was a blessing,” Bridges tells the Weekly “It was great to kind of rede ne what Texas R&B and Texas music means to us. I think it was a great marriage.”

And there’s always more Texans on the bucket list.

“I love Beyoncé. I love Megan Thee Stallion, another Texan. My friend Charlie Crockett, who’s from Dallas, we’ve been talking about making some music together. Us Texans, we try to stick together,” says Bridges, who will perform at the Theater at Virgin on April 25, coincidentally a day after Khruangbin performs two nights at Brooklyn Bowl.

A reunion wouldn’t be completely out of the question, he says. The duo never got to fully perform those EPs live. It’s almost as though they exist in a vacuum, during that stationary time between 2020 and 2022 as we were still navigating a post-COVID world. Those years also bookended the release of Gold-Diggers Sound, Bridges’ third and arguably best album since 2015’s Coming Home

If Bridges’ rst record introduced him as a vintage voice of the soul-stirring ’60s, Gold-Diggers Sound established him as an assertive, slick-talking dynamo of modern R&B. The singer-songwriter lived in the chic East Hollywood hotel of the same

name as he recorded the album, and frankly, “the energy of that place just kind of seeped into the music on its own,” he says.

“I never really wanted my music to be boxed in, and I think it’s healthy for artists to always reinvent themselves,” Bridges says.

“With my most recent album, I felt like my music wasn’t connecting with the Black community, and I wanted to shape the album as an R&B album in my own style. My next album is going to be completely di erent from that.”

Coming Home and Gold-Diggers Sound were both career-dening, but Bridges says he’s been writing for the past four years, searching for a new “North Star.” He’s working with Grammy-winning producer Ian Fitchuk, who co-produced Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour, this time around, and the late soul singer Roy C has been a big in uence.

“I was making music that initially felt a little bit more polished and along the Gold-Diggers lines, but I put all that stu on the back burner to make something a little bit more simplistic,” he says. “This next one is somewhat of a self portrait, a re ection of Texas, my upbringing, things I really value.”

Bridges has yet to announce a release date for the album, but rest assured, there will be plenty of entertainment at his Vegas set. Local DJ Neek Lopez will hype up the crowd for the singer. And Bridges teases playing some songs from his Khruangbin collabs. Fingers crossed we also hear his new single, “It Was Always You (Siempre Fuiste Tú)” with Mexican music titan Carin León. And while León is actually from Hermosillo, Mexico, Bridges—as a Texan—feels they couldn’t be closer.

“It was special for me,” Bridges says. “When I was growing up in Texas, Mexican culture was laced all throughout Texas. It felt at home for me to collab with Carin.”

(Courtesy)

LEON BRIDGES

MEANINGFUL MUSIC

Local music lovers who follow the wonderfully distinct programming at Myron’s at the Smith Center are in for a rare treat this week when Canadian Songwriters Hall of Famer Bruce Cockburn makes a tour stop Downtown. The award-winning folk, jazz and rock artist—and remarkable guitar player—is making the rounds behind last year’s acclaimed O Sun O Moon, his 27th album which was recorded in Nashville with longtime producer Colin Linden.

It’s been long enough since Cockburn played Vegas that doesn’t remember where he played here last, but the 78-year-old legend remains a road warrior, recently finishing a series of shows in Italy. He’s toured Europe frequently during his long career, “and some aspects of those shows have been pretty politically charged,” he tells the Weekly “When I started in Europe in the ’80s … it was very volatile in terms of street politics in those days, fascist terrorists blowing up train stations. It was kind of a wild scene.”

Cockburn is often categorized as a folk artist and his songwriting has frequently addressed human rights and environmental issues. But whether audiences are connecting to the meaningful lyrics or the articulate music, they are always connecting.

“It’s a whole different experience playing to an audience not fluent in English,” he says. “Some years ago a guy in Italy was telling me after the show, ‘I don’t understand anything you say, but I love your music because it makes me feel so calm.’ And that show included [songs] ‘Call it Democracy’ and ‘If I Had a Rocket Launcher,’ some fairly inflammatory stuff.”

The concert at Myron’s will be a solo show, just Cockburn and his guitar, “so if you don’t like a show that doesn’t have drums, don’t come,” he jokes. It may sound minimalist, but the uninformed should check out a live clip on YouTube to learn how Cockburn creates undulating layers of music all by himself, and hones in on his award-winning lyrics at the right moments.

“I’ve always felt free to write about any subject that came up … but people noticed the political songs early on and I was sort of defined that way in the minds of those people,” Cockburn says. “I don’t see that as being put in a box, but maybe what could be called a box is that I offer people songs where the lyrics matter. That approach … isolates me from a certain category of artist and a certain demographic, but lots of people want to be entertained by something that asks a little bit of them. That’s my crowd.”

(Courtesy)

MUSIC

SEEK OUT DIVERSITY

Five acts to catch at the Sick New World fest

BY GABRIELA RODRIGUEZ

Attention rockers: Sick New World is setting the stage for a day to remember. This is the second iteration of the one-day, alt-metal mega fest, and with headliners like Slipknot, System of a Down and Alice In Chains, it’s no surprise the event sold out minutes after tickets were released.

SICK NEW WORLD FESTIVAL

April 27, 11 a.m., $325+.

Las Vegas Festival Grounds, sicknew worldfest. com.

Before you come at us for referring to the fest as “heavy metal,” please know we understand this lineup runs the gamut of genres; shoegaze masterminds Drop Nineteens and punk-pop twin duo The Garden are just a couple of the additions that left us scratching our heads in confusion, but also heightened our excitement. SNW is a catch-all for many different rock stylists, but here are a few artists we encourage you to check out.

ZULU

This LA-born Black powerviolence quintet has been making waves within the global hardcore scene since it stepped out with its debut 2019 EP Our Day Will Come. Not only are they known for visibly having fun on stage and bumping R&B and reggae in between tracks, they never skip the chance to stand on moral ground, speak their truth and spread a message of anti-racism and POC celebration.

HAVE A NICE LIFE

If there was an essential album to listen to while experiencing existential dread, it would be Have A Nice Life’s internet-praised Deathconsciousness. Through fuzzed-out, distorted guitars and droning percussion, Connecticut duo Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga know exactly how to inject a crowd with a sense of defeat. And while this doesn’t sound like the typical hyped-up festival vibe, we promise it’ll be an experience you won’t want to skip.

SPY

We had the pleasure of seeing this Bay Area hardcore punk project at Eagle Aerie Hall earlier this year and have yet to shut up about their set. Spy’s throat-ripping

tracks come in hot with disgust-filled vocals, frenzied drums and heavy riffs. Singer Peter Pawlak draws much of his energy from his political views, but despite the weight of it all, he and the band keep their sets tight and get bodies moving.

KNOCKED LOOSE

Over the years, Knocked Loose has developed a reputation of garnering a hectic reaction—nonstop moshing, crowd surfing and stage diving included. And what’s not to love about that? The band mixes hardcore elements with heavyweight metalcore breakdowns. Even if you spend the entire set avoiding taking one to the chin, it’ll still be worth seeing it through.

SLOWDIVE

Many listeners’ first introduction to shoegaze came through Slowdive’s acclaimed 1994 album Souvlaki. Its sound is transportive, generating a sense of tranquility through looping guitars and melancholic vocals. They’ve recently released their fifth studio album Everything Is Alive last year and have since rediscovered their touring stride heading into Sick New World.

(Courtesy/Alice Baxley)

THE STRIP

BY GEOFF CARTER

“I’ve already lost an earring,” said Mariah Carey, two songs into a Wednesday night performance of her new residency, The Celebration of Mimi, at Park MGM’s Dolby Live theater. Grinning, she shrugged it off, noting that she had “plenty of other adornments.”

That she does, though not all of them are jewelry or gowns dripping with Swarovski crystal. The Celebration of Mimi, running through April 27 with additional dates in July and August, is a treasure box of hits—a career retrospective and sort of living autobiography whose every other chapter happens to be an immortal, chart-topping hit. She reels them off with the backing of a small but powerful band, a trio of backing singers and a phalanx of male dancers—but truly, she could have taken the stage in sweatpants, with no backing at all, and still held the room. Her personality is just that engaging, her instrument that powerful, and the hits that durable.

Real talk for a sec: I’ve never been a fan of Mariah Carey’s music, for reasons entirely my own. But I’ve an

enormous, unconditional respect for the singer/songwriter’s journey. She skillfully anticipated many pop trends, survived the worst abuse the music industry can dish out and has stayed in peak voice for three decades. The Celebration of Mimi, which includes inspirational passages narrated by Carey and video of her early years, touches on all these aspects of her life and career, but its narrative adornments are wholly in service to her dynamic singing.

No one, fan or not, can watch Carey sing without thinking, well, damn And the first five songs of her set—“Vision of Love,” ‘Emotions,” “Make it Happen,” “I’ll Be There” (a charismatic duet with Trey Lorenz) and “Dreamlover”—come off like a fireworks display. Even now, at age [redacted], Carey’s melismas are flawless, and she can still fully navigate the extremes of her multiple-octave-range; she ascends into her “whistle” register with minimal effort.

Put another way: As Stereogum writer Tom Breihan recently wrote, admiringly, “All throughout her

Mariah Carey ’s new Vegas residency is a retrospective, a biography and a gift to fans

career, critics like me have discussed Mariah Carey less as an artist and more as an athlete.” In The Celebration of Mimi, she leaves it all on the field.

Taken purely as a Vegas spectacle, however, your experience with Mimi will prove relative to your level of fandom. The setpieces are modest and largely absent of the eye-popping special effects that have distinguished recent residencies by Katy Perry, Adele and U2. (And I might be mistaken, but I didn’t hear the word “Vegas” spoken even once.)

But she didn’t need an immersive screen or indoor rainstorm to win the night. Carey’s audience is locked in. There were plenty of wow moments in simply watching Carey interact with her superfans, her “lambs,” who didn’t so much vibe to her songs as relive the happy times when they fell in love with them— when they made her music part of who they are. One fan even asked for Carey to autograph his arm so that he could get it tattooed. Without missing a note, she obliged. A permanent adornment from her own collection, benevolently given.

(Courtesy/Denise Truscello)

MARIAH CAREY April 26-27, July 26-27 & 31, August 2-3, 7 & 9-10, 8 p.m., $110+. Dolby Live, ticketmaster. com.

ART BY GABRIELA RODRIGUEZ

Barrick’s Contemporary Ex-votos mixes Latinx tradition with modern artistry

DEVOTED

NEWLY

When the world has a narrow vision of Latinidad, the best way for Latinos to break with implied narratives is to divide and rede ne, to refrain from creating art that ts snugly into expectations, and to draw ideas from traditions and personal vaults, while twisting it in ways that can’t be pinpointed at rst glance.

“This is something that I’m very proud of—this is a Latinx art show without having to be very Latinx,” curator Dr. Emmanuel Ortega tells the Weekly. “Here, the art is very speci c and nuanced.”

Challenging conventional narratives within Latinidad, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art’s newest exhibit, Contemporary Ex-votos: Devotion Beyond Medium combines contemporary expressions of 15 Latinx artists with a collection of 19th to 20th-century ex-votos from the archives of New Mexico State University. Originally unveiled at NMSU’s gallery in 2022, the exhibit found a new home at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Gallery 400 in January and has since traveled west, where it continues to captivate audiences.

At the heart of the exhibit lies the juxtaposition of retablos and ex-votos—devotional artworks steeped in tradition—alongside the innovative interpretations of contemporary artists. Retablos, rich in religious symbolism, and ex-votos, humble expressions of gratitude, traditionally adorn tin surfaces commemorating answered prayers and celebrating survival.

Under the curation of Ortega, the pieces showcased transcend historical boundaries.

”I wanted to respect the integrity of the process of making ex-votos, which have been around Mexico since the 1600s,” he says.

While curating the exhibit, Ortega’s initial impulse was to include Latinx artists who weren’t making religious art. “They understood the intricacies of the

culture behind something like an ex-voto, but were not necessarily making two-dimensional, religious art,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons we call it Beyond the Medium, because I didn’t want to just have artists re-creating ex-votos—because to me, that’s a form of colonization and appropriation.”

Krystal Ramirez’s “¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (What Have I Done to Deserve This?)” embodies ideas of gender, immigration and Las Vegas’ mid-century modern architecture. Ramirez, daughter of an immigrant construction worker, challenges male-centric creation with handmade brise-soleil bricks. Neon lettering, taken from queer lmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s 1984 lm of the same name, adorns the artwork, re ecting Vegas’ vibrant signage and deeper cultural resonance.

In an examination of how immigrants’ presence can shape a city, Justin Favela re-creates signage from his childhood out of cardboard and re ects on the businesses whose signs have been painted over. Yvette Mayorga’s piece is inspired by her mother’s occupation as a cake decorator in Chicago. The bright colors and seemingly harmless depictions are shattered upon closer inspection.

“When you get close, you start seeing all the sinister ideas that aim to deconstruct the distortion that the American dream represents to a lot of Latinos,” says Ortega.

As Contemporary Ex-votos continues to traverse di erent spaces, it serves as a testament of the enduring power of art in reshaping and reclaiming narratives. Through their interpretations of ex-votos, the artists o er a glimpse into the complexities of modern Latinidad. By marrying tradition with innovation, the exhibit becomes a sanctuary for communal storytelling and challenges us to confront preconceived notions.

Works by Justin Favela (Courtesy/Trey Broomfield)

Yvette Mayorga’s “The Pilgrimage to Plateros” (Courtesy)

DERBY Day

Saturday, May 4

2pm – 5pm $50

Dress in your finest Derby attire for a complimentary champagne or mint julep on us, making every moment cheers-worthy. Secure your spot for prime race viewing on our TVs, memorable rooftop photos, and enjoy reserved seating plus a $50 beverage credit with each reservation. Reserve

REFOCUSED ON ROOTS

Wolfgang Puck reinvents his Italian approach with Caramá

(Courtesy)

BY BROCK RADKE

Wolfgang Puck’s new Italian concept Caramá made a quiet debut over Super Bowl weekend in February, but now it’s time to recognize this notable transition. Located at Mandalay Bay just inside the casino entrance from the westside parking garage, Lupo was an Italian institution on the Strip for more than two decades, one of the last restaurants standing from the resort’s earliest dining lineups. It closed in the fall and was renovated through the holidays, the nal location for Puck’s Lupo brand.

“It’s like an evolution of what we had,” Puck tells the Weekly. “The hotel wanted change and I told them, the people in LA, they know Lupo, so we really have to re-establish a new name, which will take time. But I think the restaurant is beautiful and we are excited to have changed it, and it’s really sort of a love letter now.”

Caramá honors the legendary chef and restaurateur’s mother, Maria, a chef who taught him to cook Italian cuisine when Puck was in his young

teen years, and when they worked together in a hotel at the Wörthersee lake in southern Austria. Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, near Austria’s border with Italy.

“We always said we were gonna have an Italian restaurant with Italian food,” says Puck, who famously incorporated pasta and pizza into his iconic menus at Spago and other restaurants. “When you go to a fancy Italian restaurant, three-star type places, you’d think you’re eating in France or something—little portions, not strong avors. We wanted to have really strong Italian avors, use good olive oil and basil and garlic, keep the food simple but very tasty.”

Puck and his kitchen crew are using more house-made fresh pasta than you’ll nd at his other eateries, and when dry pasta is called for, it’s gotta be perfectly cooked.

CARAMÁ Mandalay Bay, 702-740-5522, wolfgangpuck. com. Sunday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 5-10:30 p.m.

The results of this soulful approach to a favorite cuisine include faithful classics like rigatoni Amatriciana ($30) with guanciale, rosemary and Pecorino cheese; linguine and clams ($34); and oven-baked lasagna ($32) with beef Bolognese.

“When my son was younger, 7 or 8, the housekeeper used to cook pasta for him, and he’d say, ‘If it’s mushy, I don’t like it. Only al dente.’ I taught him that,” Puck says. “Once you’re used to it, that’s the way it should be and it tastes totally di erent.” He recommends rst timers at Caramá eat like he eats when in Italy, sharing some pasta dishes and moving on to a sh dish like salt-baked sea bass for the table ($84) or grilled sword sh with broccoli di ciccio and Sicilian sundried tomato pesto ($49).

But rst, start with some salumi selections, imported meats and cheeses and marinated veggies that make up one of the menu’s centerpieces. Pizza options and light

antipasti like burrata and radicchio ($25) and bigeye tuna tartare ($31) round out those rst-round shareables, and another standout main course is porchetta Romana ($48), roasted pork belly with garlic and rosemary and a crispy skin. That dish is one of Puck’s new favorites.

“I’m very excited,” he says. “To me, it’s all about the ingredients, that’s what Italian cooking is all about, not a fancy ravioli with three di erent sauces and lots of cream and butter. We want to make food where people will say, ‘Oh my god, that was delicious,’ and it makes you feel good, but you also want to go back next week.”

LEFT

PAGE Grilled lamb chops

ABOVE LEFT Caramá chef Max Farina ABOVE RIGHT Interior by Oscar Zagal/Courtesy

(Courtesy)

FINANCIAL LITERACY CLASS SETS TEENS ON PATH TO SUCCEED IN LIFE

BY KATIE ANN MCCARVER VEGAS INC STAFF

Richard Shipin, who teaches a financial literacy class at the Delta Academy, said it’s critical to instruct students about what’s ahead in life.

Financial literacy, he says, is learning how to become financially capable and financially independent. That could mean calculating their taxes—a primary lesson in the month of April—or handling their student loans and understanding how they may affect one’s credit score.

“It’s important because it comes quick,” Shipin said. “Especially for the students who want to move out, want to join the military—whatever they want to do. The bills pile up very fast.”

Students at the academy—a public charter school serving grades 6-12 in North Las Vegas—aren’t necessarily coming from a lot of wealth in a neighborhood where the median household income is around $33,000 a year, said Kyle Konold, superintendent of Delta

Academy, which opened nearly 20 years ago and hosts about 150 students.

Therefore, Konold said, it’s crucial that students know how to save for the unexpected expenses—like their air conditioning going out, for example—and the expected expenses, like retirement.

“I think that’s important for all young people to know, to start now,” he said. “It’s never too early.”

The class takes financial literacy “one step at a time,” Shipin said, starting with what jobs a student may have in the future.

The most impactful lesson for students, he emphasized, is budgeting, “without a doubt.” During that time, he teaches them the importance of a three- to six-month emergency fund, how to pay rent and their other bills, and so on.

“Everyone is shocked every year when we look up rents,” he said.

Real-life application classes like financial literacy tend to keep students more engaged, Shipin said, because they know they’ll need what they learn in that classroom someday—whether in paying their taxes, moving out of their parents’ house or other instances.

“It’s kind of funny because I teach math,” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘This is way more interesting and useful than your math class.’”

The class allows students to visualize what they want out of life, and then restructure those thoughts in terms of what they can afford. It ultimately gives them a realistic view of what to expect as they leave high school, Konold said.

“In order to get things started, you have to start somewhere,” he said. “And you don’t want to keep your money under your mattress. So let’s talk about a savings account that’s interest-bearing, as opposed to a checking account that gets you nothing.”

In April, which is National Financial Capability Month, the students learned how to calculate their annual taxes, about the marginal tax rate and more, Shipin said.

“My students have told me, ‘No one has talked like this to us,’” he said. “So I think that’s a big reason why the class is important—just the fact that, without that class, very likely, they wouldn’t be having these conversations. And anyone can agree these are important conversations.”

Financial literacy teacher Richard Shipin at Delta Academy in North Las Vegas. (Wade Vandervort/Staff)

BY DANIEL CHI

Wsociety. But if you want to build nancial resilience, forget the Joneses and live within your means.

Why money burns a hole

in your pocket and how to build fi nancial resilience

tions o er this service. This is to auout of sight, out of mind. How much

hen my kids were little, we would occasionally give them a few dollars as a reward. They would put the money in their pocket, then take it out and stare at it, then put it back into the pocket, and repeat. They clutched the money so tight for so long, it became a crumpled paper ball. They imagined the candies and toys they could buy and couldn’t wait to spend the money.

Money burned a hole in their pocket.

Most kids are like that. But many adults are like that, too! Why is saving money is so hard? How come the desire to spend is so unquenchable?

Human nature craves immediate grati cation. Money in your pocket does not give you much grati cation. It is what money can buy that gives you grati cation—food, clothes, toys, entertainment, pleasure, etc. To delay that grati cation is against human instinct—it is di cult and requires training and self-discipline. Delayed grati cation is un-human and inhumane. We loathe it, we despise it, we don’t want to think about it. Forget it!

But can we forget it? Can we escape the reality? A recent survey shows that 63% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; one-third are not saving any money; 57% don’t have the savings to cover even a $1,000 emergency.

This lack of savings can be detrimental to our nancial health, which

in turn harms our mental and physical health. Most of us have experienced, or at least observed, how a nancial emergency can push our lives into distress: the car broke down and requires a repair, but I don’t have the savings to pay for the repair, so I put it on my credit card, or worse, get a pay-day loan; the interest charge on the loan snowballs and puts me further into debt; I am stressed, I can’t sleep well; I am sleep deprived and can’t perform well at my job; my boss gives me warnings, which makes me even more stressed; my head hurts and my stomach churns; oh, all the bills that are due; I feel sick … A healthy level of savings builds nancial resilience, which means that when an accident happens, you have the nancial safety net to fall on and

Second, save. If you live within your means, you will be able to save part of your paycheck. But if money burns a hole in your pocket, one solution is to not even let that money get into your pocket. How? Set up a savings or investment account and automatically transfer part of your paycheck into that account. All nancial institutions o er this service. This is to automate your best nancial behavior— out of sight, out of mind. How much to save? The rule of thumb says 15% of your paycheck, but anything is better than nothing. The rule of thumb also says that you want enough savings to last three to six months if you lose your income. I say shoot for six.

already know and do this stu , help someone else develop and automate

can recover from that accident. In this world, accidents happen. It is not a matter of whether, but when and how bad. We will inevitably fall. If we are resilient, we can help ourselves up and move on. But if we are not resilient, we will not be able to get up, and our lives may be permanently damaged.

Our savings is the nancial safety net that will lessen the damage and help us get up and move on. That is nancial resilience.

We all need to build nancial resilience. How?

First, live within your means. Just because others have the newest iPhone, doesn’t mean you have to. Just because others drive fancy cars, doesn’t mean you have to. It is very hard to have this self-discipline in our consumeristic

April is National Financial Literacy Month. Help yourself, or if you already know and do this stu , help someone else develop and automate their best nancial behaviors. At the Department of Finance at UNLV, we o er two nancial-literacy courses: FIN 111 and FIN 112. The rst covers a broad range of foundational topics; the second covers personal-investment strategies. Any community member can enroll as a non-degree-seeking student and take these courses.

After you save, you want to start investing. Over the past 100 years, the S&P500 index has returned about 12% per year. Assume similar returns for the future and if a 20-year-old saves $3 a day and invests at the end of each year, then by age 65, when they are about to retire, they’ll have $1.5 million.

Next month, I will write about the conspicuous phenomenon of in ation and how to protect your wealth from it.

Daniel Chi is professor and chair in the Department of Finance at UNLV’s Lee Business School.

GIVING NOTES

Local philanthropy making a difference

Caridad, a charity with a mission of humanizing the homeless, has renewed its license to manage the Hebron property through October 31, 2026. Hebron offers low-income housing and programming for veterans, formerly homeless and seniors on a fixed income. Caridad took over management of the property in November 2021.

Three Square Food Bank’s board of directors appointed Cami Christensen, president and general manager of Westgate Las Vegas, as the 2024 board chair, succeeding Al Welch. Other officers are vice chair Don Ross, Caesars Entertainment; secretary Frank Stanbrough, Southwest Gas; treasurer David Garcia, JP Morgan Private Bank. Board members are Eric Aldrian, Wynn Resorts; Brian Ayala, Ayala’s Concession Group; Diana Bennett, Paragon Gaming; Richard Crawford, The Crawford Group; Michael Britt, Red

Rock Resorts; Brandon Doll, Sports & Entertainment Advisors; Al Welch, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Bill Hornbuckle, MGM Resorts International; M.J. Maynard, RTC Southern Nevada; Ryann Juden; Frank Woodbeck, CSN Foundation; Anita Romero, Southwest Gas; Rachel Shiffrin, Escapely; Shawn Gerstenberger, UNLV; Alissa Wood, Nevada Gold Mines. Additionally, Three Square announced Edmund Wong as chief operating officer.

The Shade Tree, a 24-hour accessible shelter designed to meet the needs of domestic violence and human trafficking survivors, their children and pets (through a partnership with Noah’s Animal House), received $48,000 from Check City following the financial institution’s annual matching campaign in November.

Special Olympics Nevada promoted

Terrence Thornton to president and CEO. Thornton previously served as executive director and has been with the organization since 2019.

Boyd Gaming donated more than $200,000 to nearly 190 nonprofit organizations nationwide in its 2023 “Wreaths of Hope” and “Trees of Hope” competition. A total of 186 nonprofits across 11 states participated in the annual holiday competition, with participants decorating wreaths or trees in the spirit of their organization’s mission. Cash prizes were determined by votes from Boyd Gaming customers. The first-place winners in Nevada were: Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada, Pawtastic Friends, Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada, A Path 4 Paws, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, Heaven Can Wait Animal Society, Las Vegas Breast Cancer Warriors and East Valley Family Services

PREMIER CROSSWORD HOROSCOPES “REPTILIAN EMPIRE” BY FRANK LONGO

WEEK OF APRIL 25 BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Have you ever gotten your mind, heart and soul in sweet alignment with the spiritual beauty of money? An opportunity to do that is available. During the next four weeks, you can cultivate an almost mystical communion with the archetype of well-earned wealth.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the coming weeks, Taurus, you will possess a special aptitude for injecting ingenious changes wherever messiness is mixed with elegance, wherever blemished beauty requires redemption and wherever lyrical truths need to be rescued from careless duplicity or pretense.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): My Gemini friend Alicia thrives on having a quick, acute, whirling-dervish-like intelligence. It’s one of her strong points now, but she says she used to be hyperactive. I’m guessing that many of you Geminis have been evolving in a similar direction in recent months—and will climax this excellent period of relaxing growth in the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): During the next 13 days, my team of 13 Prayer Warriors and I will sing incantations to nurture your vigor, sovereignty and clarity of purpose. How should you prepare for this flood of blessings? Start by having a long talk with yourself in which you describe exactly why you deserve these gifts.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A meme on Instagram said, “The day I stopped worrying about what other people think of me was the day I became free.” But our “freedom” includes the discernment to know which ideas people have about us are worth paying attention to and which are best forgotten and ignored. Leo, these are important themes for you to ruminate on right now.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is a holy place for Islam. Jerusalem is the equivalent for Judaism, and the Vatican is for Catholicism. I’d love it if there were equivalent sanctuaries for you, Virgo—where you could go to heal and recharge whenever you need to. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to identify power spots like these.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In my astrological opinion, you are entering a period when you can turn any potential breakdown into a breakthrough. If a spiritual emergency arises, I predict you will use it to rouse wisdom that sparks your emergence from numbness and apathy. Darkness will be your ally because it will be the best place to access hidden strength and untapped resources. And here’s the best news of all: Unripe and wounded parts of your psyche will get healing upgrades as you navigate your way through the intriguing mysteries.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are entering a phase when you could dramatically refine how relationships function in your life, but you must figure out how to have fun while doing the hard work that such an effort will take. What can you do to foster a graceful balance between being too self-centered and giving too much of yourself?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I feel sad when I see my friends tangling with mediocre problems. Thankfully, I don’t expect you to suffer this bland fate in the coming weeks. You will entertain high-quality quandaries. They will call forth the best in you. They will stimulate your creativity and make you smarter and kinder and wilder.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 1894, a modest Agave ferox plant began its life at a botanical garden in Oxford, England. A hundred years later, it had grown to be six feet tall but had never bloomed. Then one December day, the greenhouse temperature accidentally climbed above 68 degrees F. During the next two weeks, the plant grew twice as tall. I suspect metaphorically comparable events will soon occur for you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My analysis suggests you would dramatically benefit from basking in the care and influence of people who can elevate and champion you; who can cherish and exalt you; who can feed and inspire you. My advice is to pursue the blessings of such helpers without inhibition or apology.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Distractibility may have been an asset for our ancestors. Having a short attention span meant they were ever alert. I encourage you to be like a hunter in the coming weeks—not for wild animals, but for wild clues, wild signs and wild help.