$
6
Kids under 2 years: FREE
Bring the Whole Krewe!
Parade the whole family around the Springs Preserve during Mardi Gras Vegas. Swing to the sounds of live music, dine on Cajun and Creole cuisine, enjoy cocktails in the Big E asy Lounge, and experience activities and Southern traditions of the only family-friendly Mardi Gras celebration in town. T here’s something for everyone to enjoy at Springs Preserve’s Mardi Gras Vegas! Tickets available at springspreserve.org or at the Springs Preserve box offce.
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L AS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE
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FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010
PUBLISHER Michael Skenandore
EDITORIAL Nicole Ely Genevie Durano SENIOR EDITORS Paul Szydelko, Xania Woodman SENIOR EDITOR, A&E Geoff Carter SENIOR WRITER Lissa Townsend Rodgers STAFF WRITER Emmily Bristol CALENDAR COORDINATOR Ian Caramanzana EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
MANAGING EDITOR
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Green (politics), Al Mancini (dining), David G. Schwartz (gaming/hospitality)
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THE LATEST
Seven Days
ESA on Hold
This week in your city By B O B W H I T B Y
The embattled school voucher program faces more opposition
THU 28
By Lissa Townsend Rodgers NEVADA’S EDUCATIONAL SAVINGS PROGRAM has been called the most expansive school voucher program in the nation. On February 1, more than 4,000 students were set to receive funds that would have gone to the public education system, but that they could instead apply to private school, online school or home schooling. But it looks like kids and parents will have to put those plans on hold. On January 12, Carson City District Judge James Wilson ruled on the case of Lopez v. Schwartz and granted a temporary injunction against the program. Lopez v. Schwartz was brought by a group of Nevada parents, who asserted that ESAs violate the Nevada Constitution by creating a non-uniform system of schools, removing funds designated for public schools and reducing public school funding below mandated levels. The court disagreed on the frst two charges, but conceded that their last one had merit: Judge Wilson stated in his ruling that “legislative appropriation from the general fund to fund the operation of the public schools reduces the amount deemed suffcient by the Legislature to fund public education.” “Stories are compelling on both sides, but I think the Nevada Constitution is quite clear that public funds, once the Legislature has designated them for public school use, have to be used for that purpose,” says Sylvia Lazos, policy director of Educate Nevada Now, an organization that supports the plaintiffs. She adds that “Clark County would have lost as much as $17 million and had to make budget cuts that would have adversely affected public school children.” State Treasurer Dan Schwartz, whose offce is in charge of administering the program, says, “We have always
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known that this would be an up and down process through the courts.” One thing both sides agree on is that they want to “get this resolved as expeditiously as possible,” according to Lazos. This case is not the only legal challenge to the ESA program: A suit brought by Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchison was dropped earlier this month, but one from the American Civil Liberties Union is still working its way through the courts. That suit is based on the grounds that ESA funds used to send children to religious schools violate the Nevada Constitution’s mandate that no public school funds can be for the “use or beneft of any sectarian or secular society or association.” “The ACLU of Nevada is still diligently pursuing a permanent remedy to stop this unconstitutional voucher program,” says Amy Rose, legal director of the ACLU of Nevada. “We are pleased to see that another court recognizes that this program runs afoul of the Nevada Constitution.” And what of those students and parents who planned on receiving their $5,000 in February? Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has fled an appeal to the injunction with the State Supreme Court. In a statement, he said, “My offce is working diligently so that parents can enjoy the genuine educational choice envisioned by lawmakers this past legislative session, and remains focused on resolving the matter as quickly as possible.” However, it looks unlikely that any resolution will come before the February 1 deadline. Some students may have to put their school plans on hold—but, hey, at least they’re getting an education in politics, bureaucracy and the Nevada Constitution.
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
[ BY THE NUMBERS ]
8
Strip vs. Downtown Whether it’s for clubs, craps or conventions, people keep coming to Las Vegas in droves. In fact, 2015 set a new tourism record, with more than 42 million visitors making their way to Sin City. While most are staying on the Strip, some are making their way Downtown. The numbers for the properties around Fremont Street may still be dwarfed by those farther south, but they are rising. —Lissa Townsend Rodgers
News, deals and why Trump is a little like Stupak.
HOTEL OCCUPANCY
90.2%
AVERAGE DAILY ROOM RATE
130.40
$
GAMING REVENUE
5.747
$
Strip
Strip
billion
(+.5% from last year)
(+2.8%)
Strip (-1.2%)
83.1% Downtown (+3.4%)
$
61.31
498
$
Downtown
million
(+4.9%)
Downtown (+6.4%)
* All numbers through November 2015
Bowling and movies go together like pickled eggs and beer; both seem a little incompatible at first, but it turns out they complement each other beautifully. Add Adrian Zhmed into the mix and you’ve got Bowling & A Movie Night at Brooklyn Bowl, featuring Grease 2. Perfect. BrooklynBowl.com.
FRI 29
Last year, more than 2,500 archers from around the world gathered to let the arrows fly at Vegas Shoot. This year, organizers are expecting an even better turnout at what has become the premier event of the sport. Get down to the South Point to see talented Olympic hopefuls in no-error competition through Sunday. NFAAUSA.com.
SAT 30
If you dig sculpted bods as much as we do, then be at the Orleans Arena at 10 a.m., for the NPC Legends Classic IFBB Pro Bikini show. This muscle fest features some of the most pumped ladies you’ll happen across. Might help you keep that New Year’s resolution. OrleansCasino.com.
SUN 31
If we’re going to learn how to live sustainably in the desert, we are going to have to teach the young ones. Springs Preserve’s puppet show, Sustainability Gulch, gets the message across in a language kids understand: fun. Catch it weekends through Feb. 28, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. SpringsPreserve.org.
MON 1
Leonardo is a 23-foot long, plant-eating dinosaur from the Cretaceous period that was naturally mummified before being fossilized. The Las Vegas Natural History Museum has a new exhibit featuring photographs and research into this amazing fossil. Open daily. LVNHM.org.
TUE 2
Local artist Alexander Huerta combines scratchboard and collage techniques with clippings from old magazines to make work that honors our collective history. His work is on display through March 8 at the Clark County Library’s main art gallery. LVCCLD.org.
WED 3
In the wake of the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, Europeans have learned what it means to live with the threat of terrorism. Philippe Le Corre, a foreign policy fellow at Brookings Mountain West, will discuss this new reality in a talk, 6 p.m. at UNLV’s Greenspun Hall. UNLV.edu/BrookingsMTNWest.
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2 0 1 6
From the teen podcaster to the casino exec, meet the visionaries who are shaping the city’s future
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2016 THE FRENCH HOST
Alex Goude
Actor and host of Twisted Vegas Alex Goude has hosted some of Europe’s top variety and game shows, such as France’s versions of America’s Got Talent, Wipeout and America’s Funniest Home Videos. But with his sight set on stardom on the other side of the Atlantic, he launches his career stateside in February with Twisted Vegas at Westgate’s International Showroom, the same stage on which Elvis and Liberace played. ACHIEVEMENTS
Goude has been traveling between France and Las Vegas to visit his relatives his entire life. He moved to the Valley three years ago, not for professional reasons but for personal ones. One of the frst openly gay television stars in France, Goude and his husband were unable to have a child via surrogacy there, where it’s illegal, so they uprooted their lives to pursue their dream of starting a family. Their son, Elliot, is now 11 months old. ALREADY A LOCAL
The next logical step after taking care of his family was to look after his career, and that meant seeking out entertainment jobs in Las Vegas. While the multifaceted performer holds credits as a producer, writer, director and actor in France, the stage is his frst home. “I quit [theater] to do TV, which I did for eight years,” he says. “I directed a lot of [theater] shows, but I never [performed again].” Ultimately, the road to staging a show is a long, humbling process. “It’s exciting,” he says. “Nobody knows me [here]. I’m starting from scratch.” TAKING RISKS
Paul Oh
UNLV Lincy professor for Unmanned Aerial Systems ACHIEVEMENTS
Before joining the UNLV staff in 2014, Paul Oh taught mechanical engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia for 14 years. The worldrenown robotics expert came to Las Vegas after Nevada received an FAA designation to test unmanned aerial systems, or drones. In his time on campus, Oh
has begun developing a world-class robotics lab, and his team of students placed eighth at the international Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, where they faced teams from MIT and NASA. “We’ve seen the growth and value of drones, and it’s just going to continue to grow,” he says. “People are looking to the United States for leadership and direction, and, with Nevada being one of the six test sites … It’s going to have a worldwide impact.”
DRONE OF ALL TRADES
For Oh, drones are more than hobbyist toys or something the military can use for missions. “Every adjective that you can put in front of the word ‘drone’ comes to mind,” he says. “Everything from search-and-rescue drone, firefighting drone, delivery and transport drone, medevac drones. … In whatever ways they can improve quality of life, that’s where I want to be.” NEVADA’S PIONEERING SPIRIT Adjusting
to the desert heat is not the only differ-
ence with Oh’s new home compared to the Northeast. “What I am discovering the longer I stay here is this is a population that’s really excited about high tech,” he says, citing Hyperloop Technologies and Faraday Future’s recent move to the Apex Industrial Site in North Las Vegas. “Nevadans have this can-do spirit,” he says. “It’s very ingenious how they’re able to take something out of nothing, [like] taking a spot in the desert and creating this place that 40 million people come to each year.”
FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
Despite that resourceful attitude, Nevada has also shown Oh some areas that can be improved. He’s working with UNLV’s Department of Education and local high schools to see how they could use robotics to get students excited about STEM education. With Tesla and Faraday Future talking alternative energy, Oh’s interest in renewable energy, particularly solar, has been piquing. “Solar could position Nevada to be a key player,” he says.
–Nicole Ely
VegasSeven.com
THE ROBOTICS GUY
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Twisted Vegas takes the audiences on a whimsical voyage through the city, featuring contortionists, singers and acrobats and in locations from the Strip to the Grand Canyon. Branded as a show about the show, it’s meant to be a highlight reel of all the wacky and weird this town has to offer. “Usually when you go see a Vegas show, you’re going to see six or seven acts max during the whole thing. Here, there are 25,” Goude says. And while the stakes are high, he knows the payoff will be great. “I’m scared, but it’s good to be scared. It’s funny to be scared. My whole career, the only thing I have been interested in is making people laugh. That’s what motivates me.” –Melinda Sheckells
January 28–February 3, 2016
GOUDE BY ANTHONY MAIR; OH BY A ARON MAYES/UNLV PHOTO SERVICES
THE PLOT THICKENS
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Corey Taylor may only be 18, but the Nevada State High School senior has a résumé that’s years ahead of her age. An actress with 31 flm credits to her name, Taylor started her weekly teen radio show, Corey Taylor Talks, more than 2� years ago. The show’s thrust is built on empowering teens, and tackles topics that range from the serious (teen suicide, bullying) to the lighthearted (business profles, can’t-miss activities). With more than
PHOTO BY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
ACHIEVEMENTS
Taylor got her frst break on the airwaves when she was a guest on Glam Radio at 15. She was such a hit that Lotus Broadcasting (now AllNetRadio.com) offered her a weekly show. While she was excited, there MAKING SACRIFICES
Taylor began acting on stage as a toddler, but then shifted her focus to movies after working with the 48 Hour Film Project—a program in which flmmakers produce a short in two days. She’s appeared in independent flms and SCREEN QUEEN
shorts, most of which are horror flms. The frst time Taylor died on screen was at age 13. “I fall down a lot, and I get killed a lot,” she says. “Usually by stabbing.” Sometimes, the themes of her radio show and her movies overlap. She recently starred in Atelophobia, where she portrays a bullied teen who takes her revenge on beauty pageant girls who torment her. “Obviously, I would never advocate for killing anybody,” she says. “But it does make you think twice about bullying.” STAYING POSITIVE, GIVING BACK Living a life in
the spotlight can make you a target. Taylor’s love of acting has caused her to be the subject of online bullying, not just from her peers but adults as well. Instead of becoming dejected from comments surrounding her weight and looks, Taylor channels that into something good, a trait she says she’s learned from her mother. The talk show has given her perspective, too. “I’ve heard so many stories of people going through horrible things that I try to stay positive, because I know it can always be worse,” she says. “I want people out there to know that they’re not alone.” –Nicole Ely
VegasSeven.com
Actress, host of Corey Taylor Talks
was one caveat: She would have to pay out of pocket to get the show up and running. “My mom and I, we’re not wealthy people,” she says. At the time, she was saving up to buy a car but decided to ditch the wheels for a microphone. “We haven’t made money yet, but the reception has been so good,” she says.
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Corey Taylor
30,000 listeners, the show has landed her dream opportunities, including a trip to the Oscars and the Teen Choice Awards. But the most rewarding, she says, has been giving a voice to teens in Las Vegas. “I’ve had so many people come up to me and tell me that the show has helped them a lot,” she says. “It’s an overwhelming feeling.”
January 28–February 3, 2016
THE TEEN VOICE
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THE COFFEE SAVANT
Cole McBride
Director of Hospitality at PublicUs In the highest regarded competition for coffee connoisseurs, the United States Barista Championship, Cole McBride is a twotime fnalist, placing second and fourth the last two years. Yet, the director of hospitality at Downtown coffee spot PublicUs isn’t just known for his technique in presenting innovative coffee beverages; his knowledge base in all facets of the industry makes him a true expert. (For starters, get him talking on the topic of water fltration.) He’s also garnered other notable successes in the competition world, such as winning the 2014 Coffee Fest Latte Art World Championship with his four-layer tulip design. In October, he and the PublicUs team were recognized as America’s Best Coffee House in the western region by Coffee Fest, an industry trade show. ACHIEVEMENTS
At 18, McBride, along with a good friend, decided to move from his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, with the desire to go as far west as possible. The guys made it to Idaho before McBride’s car was totaled. One bus ride to Seattle later, he found himself working the frst job he landed—at a coffee shop. “That frst year, I didn’t actually love coffee that much,” he says. “But what I really, really enjoyed was the service aspect.” HEADING OUT WEST
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His Seattle résumé includes places such as Espresso Vivace—“at the time it was considered one of the best coffee shops in the country, if not the world”—and Stumptown, eventually becoming director of education and sales for an equipment retailer, Visions Espresso. McBride moved to Las Vegas in 2014, and, despite being relatively new to the city, takes his role of local seriously and is grateful to be a part of its burgeoning coffee scene. “We’re hoping that the local community will gather around us and be proud of the fact that we’re representing Las Vegas in a way it’s never been represented before.” –Jessi Acuña HOMETOWN HERO
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
BITTEN BY THE BUG
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2016
A UNLV graduate with a degree in hotel administration, Bill McBeath was named the college’s 2005 Alumnus of the Year on the strength of his accomplishments in the Las Vegas casino industry. Working for Steve Wynn shortly after graduating, McBeath served as president and chief executive offcer of Treasure Island, and president and chief operating offcer of The Mirage, Bellagio and CityCenter. After 27 years in casino resort operations, including 14 as president of a Strip resort, McBeath thought he was done with operations. Then, in late 2014, he became the new president and CEO of the just-sold Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. In his year at the helm, he has steered the 5-year-old resort to its frst two proftable quarters, boosting casino revenue and positioning the Cosmopolitan for future growth. ACHIEVEMENTS
After a stint at the Golden Nugget Downtown, McBeath joined the preopening team at The Mirage. His offce next to Bobby Baldwin gave him a unique vantage point. “I was provided an incredible opportunity, working for Bobby Baldwin and Steve Wynn,” he says. “I grew a lot intellectually and emotionally. And that’s when I devel-
ARMSTRONG BY MICHAEL SOSEBEE; MCBEATH COURTESY COSMOPOLITAN L AS VEGAS
PROTÉGÉ TO A MASTER
McBeath was working in private equity and looking to do something different. Then Blackstone came calling, and he couldn’t resist. “I’ve always been one who never wanted to take the easy road,” he says. “I embraced the opportunity of taking an underperforming asset and pushing it to its true potential.” McBeath says he was so impressed by the executives at Blackstone that he almost accepted their offer to run the Cosmopolitan without asking what he was getting paid. TAKING ON THE COSMO
McBeath isn’t standing still. “We have some really great restaurants coming on line soon. Our new high-limit slots and the new race and sports book will be open before the Super Bowl.” McBeath’s team is continuing to improve the casino foor, and a Starbucks is opening. But he is most looking forward to what he thinks will be the jewel in the crown of the Cosmopolitan: 21 suites spread across 60,000 square feet on the East Tower’s top four foors, which he says will be “a game changer.” –David Schwartz THE FUTURE
THE FILMMAKER
Stan Armstrong
Documentarian and teacher
racial prejudices that our parents brought from the South.” LEARNING FROM STUDENTS
“Everybody has a story. It’s just picking the right ones to tell and being passionate about it,” documentarian Stan Armstrong says. In his nearly two decades making movies, he’s covered everything from the experience of black Confederate soldiers to the story of the Paiute tribe in Las Vegas to the history of the Moulin Rouge casino. “I’ve been here since I was 2, back in the mid ’50s,” he says, “My love for history and the changes I’ve seen in this town sparked my interest in becoming a documentary flmmaker.” Many of Armstrong’s flms will be seen on CCTV Channel 4 and Cox Channel 96 in February as part of Black History Month, and later this year on Vegas PBS.
Armstrong has taught at UNLV for more than a dozen years, an experience that has enriched his flmmaking. “I try to teach my students on the way they should look at flms and documentaries and to look at both sides, to be more open-minded: Why did this person have to do this? ... I want my students to know that every group has had some kind of hardship, from the Irish to the Germans to Hispanics to AfricanAmericans. Teaching has really opened me up to be more sensitive to others and to other cultures.” Students have also provided more than inspiration. “A lot of the people that I employ in Desert Rose [flm production company] have been ex-students or flm students from UNLV,” he says.
LOOKING BACK, WONDERING WHY
COMING ATTRACTIONS
ACHIEVEMENTS
One of Armstrong’s most personal projects is The Rancho High School Riots, which chronicles the unrest at the local high school in the early 1970s. Armstrong says the project was a “labor of love,” in which he got “to actually talk to a lot of the kids that I grew up with, both black and white. It was a great feeling, almost a liberation, but it was also very sad, to know that we had all of these commonalities but the only thing that separated us was skin color. … We were the first generations out of the South, yet we still harbored the same
Armstrong’s most recent project is The Misunderstood Legend of the Moulin Rouge, about the brief, glamorous life of Las Vegas’ frst integrated casino. “John Ford, the great flm director, said it best: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’ The Moulin Rouge is more of a legend than anything,” he says. Armstrong is also working on a series of flm vignettes about prominent African-Americans in Las Vegas. “When I’m no more, I feel that my work will carry on for future generations,” he says. “These flms will live on, and that’s what I’m all about.” –Lissa Townsend Rodgers
VegasSeven.com
President and CEO of Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
|
Bill McBeath
oped a lot of my operating style, how I viewed the business.” For McBeath, that means being able to tell what is important—and when to do something about it—in a business that runs “24 hours a day, with a million moving parts.” He remains grateful to his mentors. “A lot of what Las Vegas is today we owe to [Wynn and Baldwin’s] vision and execution.”
January 28–February 3, 2016
THE CASINO BOSS
21
NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and the 4-1-1 on Tevin Eleven
STK’s Sunday Brunch Club is the new life of the party By Melinda Sheckells
VegasSeven.com
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Brunch So Hard
SUPERB CUISINE and a confetti-covered, bottlepoppin’ day-drinking party do not always go hand-in-hand. But the party-brunch mandate that the booze comes frst and the chow comes second is not refected in the offerings at STK’s new Sunday Brunch Club. The Cosmopolitan’s steakhouse is one of the toniest high-volume, vibe-dining experiences in town. Chef Stephen Hopcraft is at the helm, and its new weekend brunch serves as an appropriate prelude. The event is equal parts revelry and delicious dining. Here’s what to expect at this social affair.
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January 28–February 3, 2016
PHOTO BY JOE FURY
Cheers to a brunch well done.
25
NIGHTLIFE
LIVE MUSIC, INTERCUT WITH A DJ
Throbbing EDM doesn’t pair nicely with chicken and waffes. Sweet songbird Christina Amato belts out soulful numbers, backed by a four-piece band; gaps are flled in by DJ Roger Gangi. TVS GALORE
An important part of brunching in the winter is the ability to watch sports. STK has brought in seven televisions and spaced them throughout the dining room, so you won’t miss a single minute of the action. THE COFFEE COMES TO YOU … ON A CART, THAT IS
Eschewing the tableside Bloody Mary cart (although there is a Bloody Mary bar), STK offers visits from a tableside barista, crafting lattes and cappuccinos—both virgin and spiked—and all served in a standard to-go-style coffee cup. Try the Nutty Irishman: Bailey’s, Frangelico, whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for java with a bit of a kick. “[The barista] makes you exactly what you want right there with all the syrups and, of course, the booze,” general manager Jordan Mendez says. A CLUB SANDWICH BEFITTING ITS NAME
The Brunch Club is made with turkey, avocado, heirloom tomato and herb mayo. Other savory hits include a pork belly Benedict and the STK ’n’ l’Eggs, a playful nod to the restaurant’s eye-catching advertising campaign depicting the back of a scantly clad woman’s legs, toting a piece of raw meat. On the sweet side, each meal starts with sticky buns glazed in cream cheese frosting and served with brown sugar for dipping, the breakfast answer to Hopcraft’s blue cheese dinner rolls with chive oil. THE CROWD IS DIVERSE
Not just for club kids, STK’s Sunday Brunch welcomes all. “We wanted to create a fun, social brunch appealing to different audiences, whether it’s nightclub, hotel guests, women— where you can come for your birthday and celebrate with your friends,” Mendez says. “We tried to hit these different [interests] and bring something for everyone.”
26
STK’s build-your-own Bloody Mary bar is positioned on the bar for all to see. The juices are fresh, including a tart and spicy tomatillo. Other accoutrements include pickled vegetables, cheeses, house-cured bacon and hot sauces. “You order your glass and vodka [from the server] and then create your Bloody Mary,” Mendez says. “It is bottomless, and the idea is that brunch is social and interactive. We have [set] the room [so that] you have to interact.” Bottle service comes in the form of Champagne served by tray to the table with coldpressed juices and glasses rimmed in sugar for mimosas. NO MINIMUM
Since STK is a restaurant and not a dayclub or nightclub (nor is it trying to be), there are no table minimums. The kitchen opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m. Regular dinner service begins at 5:30 p.m. with the room reset and all traces of brunch swept away till next week.
Clockwise from top left: a caviar platter, the Bloody Mary bar; the coffee cart; STK ‘n’ l’Eggs; the Brunch Club; and Christina Amato performing live.
PHOTOS BY JOE FURY; STK ‘N’ L’EGGS COURTESY OF STK
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
INTERACTION MAKES FOR A BETTER PARTY
NIGHTLIFE
Seven Nights Your week in parties By I A N C A R A M A N Z A N A
alongside George Lopez, Don Cheadle and Cedric the Entertainer in a tournament last year, according to an interview with OC Weekly. See if his skills behind the helm are as good as his skills behind the putter. We suggest yelling “Fore!” before the drop in “Turn Me Up Some (featuring Redman and Jay Psar).” Read our interview with the Super 7 creator at VegasSeven.com/Jayceeoh. (In Mandalay Bay, 10:30 p.m., TheLightVegas.com.) Dillon Francis.
THU 28 Bring it back to the days of Adidas shelltoes and ghettoblasters at LAX for Throwback Thursdays. DJ R.O.B.’s got the tunes that’ll make you want to unearth some of those long-forgotten dance trends. Forget the whip and the nae-nae; now’s your chance to do the Robocop or Humpty Dance. Gather up some courage and impress everybody with your version of the Worm. If you manage to slip a disk or pull a muscle, don’t blame us—blame the alcohol! (In Luxor, 10:30 p.m., Luxor.com/LAX.)
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
FRI 29
30
Of all the resident DJs we’re able to see on a regular basis, we see Afrojack the least. He has excuses, though; Google him and you’ll find he’s been spending time pumping out new material (including a song for Call of Duty: Black Ops III), collaborating with artists including David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Bebe Rexha, and blowing money on supercars, such as the $2.5 million Bugatti Chiron. Catch one of the Dutchman’s #rare appearances tonight at Omnia, because who knows when he’ll come back? Apster opens and DJ Ruckus holds it down in the club-within-a-club, Heart of Omnia. (In Caesars Palace, 10:30 p.m., OmniaNightclub. com.) Jayceeoh spins at Light. The winner of VH1’s Master of the Mix is also a golfer who competed
SAT 30 Remember when Twista released the Kanye West-produced “Overnight Celebrity” back in 2004? The single—coupled with the star-studded “Slow Jamz”— pushed Twista into the spotlight for a short stint in stardom. In a similar fashion, Louisville, Kentucky, singer Bryson Tiller became an overnight celebrity after his debut album Trapsoul went viral. Tiller calls his music “the perfect marriage between R&B and hip-hop.” Take a listen to the hard-hitting drums of “Rambo,” or his silky smooth vocals on “Don’t” and you’ll find elements of the two. See what critics and thousands of fans are fussing about at Brooklyn Bowl. We suggest bringing a lover or friend. (At the Linq Promenade, 8 p.m., Vegas.BrooklynBowl. com.) At Drai’s, you can catch a set by "the coolest DJ in the
Bryson Tiller.
KimKat.
world." Well, that’s what he calls himself, anyway. DJ Esco mans the decks to kick off the weekend. You might know him as Atlanta rapper Future’s right-hand man and hype man. Esco is known for his charisma at Future’s shows, hopping around, hyping up the crowd before build-ups and give everybody doses of his wacky dance moves. Experience some of that tonight, and see if his “cool” rubs off on you. (In the Cromwell, 10:30 p.m., DraisNightlife.com.)
SUN 31
TUE 2
Close out the month at Hakkasan with a set by Fergie DJ. DJ Mag heralded the Irish turntable terrorizer and producer as one of the Top 100 DJs of all time, which shouldn’t be a surprise since he dips into a variety of genres and seamlessly transitions between hits. Lend him an ear tonight, and see if he lives up to that title. (In MGM Grand, 10:30 p.m., HakkasanLV.com.)
The party goes up on a Tuesday at Foundation Room with a set by DJ Kay the Riot. The bombshell brunette is known for eclectic sets that are always determined by the audiences’ response. In the past, she’s touched on genres from Top 40, soul, house, electro and everything in between. See what she’ll add to the mix and add to your digital music library. (In Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m., HouseOfBlues.com/FR.)
MON 1 Collaboration is a beautiful thing; just ask diva DJ duo KimKat. The group is comprised of model/ actress Kim Lee and Katrina Nova, who met in 2007. The two realized they had similar visions and aspirations, so they attended Los Angeles’ Scratch Academy, and after only a short period of time, began touring in Asia to Europe, and sharing the stage with acts such as R3HAB and Steve Aoki. See the two at Marquee tonight for Marquee Mondays, and ask if you can collaborate with them. Maybe they’ll hire you on as a third member so you can see the rest of the world together. (In the Cosmopolitan, 11 a.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.)
WED 3 Y’know, even DJs think it’s better to give than receive. Think back to Christmas, when Calvin Harris surprised Dillon Francis with a Hardwell action figure and asked him to capture it on Snapchat. Francis—the joker that he is—took the toy around the city, giving plastic Hardwell a view of the city, and getting him drunk. Since then, we haven’t seen much of the figure, but we’re looking forward to the next installment of the Plastic Hardwell Chronicles. See if Francis puts the figurine on his turntables tonight, or, even better, brings Hardwell himself to Surrender. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., SurrenderNightclub.com.)
NIGHTLIFE
Hanging 10 With Tevin Eleven The fresh-faced DJ on his home turf advantage and an upcoming Momentus occasion By Ian Caramanzana
➜ CHANCES ARE, YOU’VE SEEN
Tevin Eleven’s name on fiers for dance events throughout the city. The 21-year-old, born Tevin Witt, has shared the stage with house heavyweights Wax Motif, Valentino Khan and Pilo, and for good reason: Witt’s known for his smartly curated, eclectic sets that bridge the gaps between the subgenres that fall under the “house” umbrella. Witt is in Artist Mafa: A local collective that’s got an online art gallery and record label. He recently got a taste of the big time when he spun alongside locals Philly Zane, Laissez Faire and MIICS at XS for XS Academy. Now, he’s slated to spin February 4 at Brooklyn Bowl for Momentus Entertainment’s inaugural event, US. I have to ask: How’d you come up with your name?
People have been calling me Tevin Eleven since middle school. So much so that it eventually stuck. So I took on the name. It’s a play on 7-Eleven, like the convenience store. What’s your favorite item at 7-Eleven?
Oh, it’s defnitely a Slurpee! No question. Talk about your beginnings.
I was born and raised in Las Vegas. I went to Las Vegas High, and it was fun! I was in band for a year, but I wasn’t feelin’ it, so I left. I was still really into music, though. Do you see any similarities between the times when you were in band to DJing and producing?
There are a few. People are always watching you and wondering what you’re gonna play next. There’s always anticipation for the next song, and it’s all a little nerve-racking.
January 28–February 3, 2016
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How did you get into dance music?
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It happened so fast. One year, my friends and I just said, “Let’s go to EDC!” So we did. We went to EDC Las Vegas in 2013, and I think Hardwell was a headliner. From there, we just started hitting as many festivals as we could: Coachella, HARD Summer, … I’ve been getting into the camping ones lately, like the Dirtybird Campout—those are sick. But HARD Summer is the one I’ll always return to. I love that festival. Maybe I’ll get to play it one day. Then I got into the whole DJ thing. I fgured I might as well do what [the DJs] were doing up there, so I began learning. [Eventually] I got offers to play gigs and got noticed through SoundCloud. The rest is history. Who have been your main influences, then and now?
I used to be really into Dillon Francis; I idolized him in the beginning. Now I’m just really into Dirtybird [Records], specifcally Justin Martin; he’s my favorite. I’m into Will Clarke, too. … Basically, I’m just into everybody who creates that deep, groovy sound that you can’t stop moving your body to. Do you prefer DJing or producing?
As of now, I would say I prefer to DJ. I’m totally into producing, but I’m still learning. My friends are teaching me slowly but surely. But yeah, I like DJing now. You recently spun for XS Academy. How was that? Do you prefer playing bigger or smaller venues?
They’re both really different in terms of perspective. I like playing all places, but I prefer smaller venues; they’re just more intimate and I can get a better feel for the room. Playing at XS was surreal, though. I’ve been there so many times, and plenty of people I look up to have played that stage. Seeing people react
to the music is dope. I never play the same set twice; I like to keep people on their toes. I want them to stop dancing and be like, “What is this track?!”
time soon. More people are getting into house and its [subgenres], and that’s really cool. Vegas’ three focal points are going to be trap, dubstep and house.
What are some of your favorite tracks to play right now?
What is the Artist Mafia and who is in it?
I always play “Jack” by Breach and “Lemonade” by Sophie. People love to get down to those. Well, at least most of my friends do. You’ve got a pretty hilarious Twitter account. How do you use social media to fuel your music career?
I use Twitter to show people who I really am and to connect with people. It helps with my music career because it lets people know what I’m all about. Where do you see Las Vegas’ indie dance scene going in 2016?
It’ll keep growing. The city’s been in love with trap and dubstep for a while now, but people are starting to realize there are other genres out there. I don’t see the return of progressive house any
It’s a record company started by my friend Anthony Wynkoop and a few people from XS. They’re basically grabbing a bunch of dudes from the city and starting something cool—whether that be putting out music, mixes or throwing little events every now and then. They’ve done block parties and a few events at Inspire Theatre, and there are plenty more in the works. The goal is simple: to get people to listen to good music. What can we expect from Tevin Eleven in 2016?
I’m working on some new music, some new content that’s never been seen or heard before. I’m also opening for Mija, Chocolate Puma and Coyote Kisses at US, Momentus Entertainment’s frst event. I’m gonna set the mood, so everybody better be ready to dance.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
FOUNDATION ROOM Mandalay Bay [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONvegas.com
PHOTOS BY JOE FURY
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
Jan. 28 DJ Seany Mac spins Jan. 29 DJs Sam I Am and Mark Mac spin Jan. 30 DJs Sam I Am, Greg Lopez and Crooked spin
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
LAVO BRUNCH
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PHOTOS BY TONY TRAN
January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
The Palazzo
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
GBDC
The Palms [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONvegas.com
PHOTOS BY JOSH METZ
January 28–February 3, 2016
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Jan. 30 Chumlee spins Feb. 6 Super Daytime Madness Party Feb. 13 Candy Land party
DINING
Restaurant reviews, news and what to eat and drink at Clique
I’ve always been a fan of sea urchin, but I’d never before seen it in Italian food. UNI, DUE, TRE | PAGE 52
Harvest Time
Chef Roy Ellamar reaps rewards at his new farm-to-table spot in Bellagio By Al Mancini
Harvest’s slow-roasted porchetta.
VegasSeven.com
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I was just one of the restaurant’s many fans. Its chef, Martin Heierling, was something of an underrated superstar. The idea of putting four kitchens on display behind glass walls in the center of the room was, at the time, novel and extremely cool. Soothing décor— replete with natural stone, wood and water fxtures—evoked a spa experience as you walked into the dining room (appropriate for a restaurant that served as a gateway to the hotel’s Spa Tower). But the place eventually lost its novelty, and Heierling, frustrated with Sensi’s decline and the abject failure of his short-lived Vdara space Silk Road, decided to move on. His 2011 replacement, Roy Ellamar, was a tremendous talent, a veteran of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and a winner on the Food Network show Chopped. Yet even under Ellamar, Sensi never regained its early stature. So it was no surprise to learn last year that it was closing, to be replaced by a new concept, Harvest. Aesthetically, the change is what I’d call a partial makeover. The compartmentalized show kitchens remain, with only minor changes. But gone are the water fxtures. And the bar and lounge areas have been signifcantly expanded. Thankfully, Ellamar remained, and he’s embraced a farm-totable approach that includes using local, sustainable ingredients from regional farms and responsible fsherman. The menu at Harvest is diverse, divided into social plates, full entrées with sides and a dim sum-style “snack wagon” that tours the room for you to select whatever looks delicious. The social plates are further subdivided. “Garden” selections comprise four salads. “Ocean” choices range from a rather pricey seafood tower ($50 per person) to Manila clam chowder with potato and crab cakes. “Ranch” dishes include braised and grilled pork cheek, open-face 12-hour smoked brisket on rye and a Scotch egg. And there are four “Boards” of house-made breads and charcuterie. Should you opt to go in a more traditional direction, Ellamar offers three steaks on the grill, two rotisserie dishes, various freshly caught seafood and lamb cooked in a stone
January 28–February 3, 2016
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
➜ WHEN SENSI OPENED in Bellagio in 2004,
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TRENDSPOTTING
DINING
Uni, Due, Tre
Sea urchin meets Italian pasta with spine-thrilling results By Al Mancini I REMEMBER IT as if it were yesterday, even though it was closer to fve or six years ago. I was exploring a little restaurant called Trattoria Nakamura-Ya in Chinatown that promised Italian cuisine the way it’s prepared in Japan. On the menu, one of the most interesting dishes I’d seen listed on an Italian menu: uni tomato cream pasta ($27, 5070 W. Spring Mountain Rd., 702-251-0022, Facebook.com/ TrattoriaNakamuraYa). I’ve always been a fan of sea urchin; the favor is centered in oceanic salinity infused with notes of lemon and iodine in different proportions depending on the time of year, and with a buttery texture mildly reminiscent of foie gras. But I’d never before seen it in Italian food. And the moment I tasted the dish, I was in love. The creamy urchin provided an unmistakably oceanic kick to the sauce that no other seafood can replicate, accented with delicate strands of saffron. I’ve returned for that dish countless times in the years since, and I still love it. It is not, however, as unique as it once was. Several chefs are using uni in otherwise Italian pasta dishes. So I set out to explore a few, and see what’s behind the trend. At Wynn’s Italian seafood restaurant Costa di Mare, which recently replaced Bartolotta, chef Mark LoRusso offers thick strands of house-made chitarra pasta topped with urchin, Venetian spider crab, tomato and lemon ($27.50, 702-770-3305, WynnLasVegas.com). The urchin is imported from the Mediterranean by the same purveyor who brings the restaurant its massive langoustines. When presented in their shells, they aren’t as pretty as what you’d fnd on the Southern California coast, having smaller spikes and a darker, duller color. But their favor is more pronounced. LoRusso says the preparation is incredibly popular with Asian guests. But he tells me he was actually inspired to use the ingredient during his recent travels in Europe. “I didn’t realize sea urchin was so popular [with Italians] until I went to Italy and did a little research,” he says. But John Mariani, the James Beard Award-winning food writer and author of How Italian Food Conquered the World, is quick to point out that this is one of several new trends in Italy that is actually inspired by American chefs, and quite recently at that. When I ask him if urchin, which is available off Italy’s coast, is a native ingredient in Italian food, he says, “In a word, no!” But, he concedes, “Over the last fve years, it’s been fnding its way into dishes both here and in Italy. I was just in Sardinia in December, which is very seafood driven. And they had it in a pasta dish there. But it’s very, very new—extremely new.” He compares it to the growing popularity of crudo (raw, sashimistyle fsh), which became huge in the U.S. before spreading to Italy just within the past decade. So it’s no surprise that one sea urchin pasta you’ll fnd locally was born in New York City. Scan the menu at Aria’s gorgeous new Italian spot Carbone, and you’ll fnd the modestly titled Spaghetti Julian
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Squid ink taglolini at Scarpetta.
($34, 877-230-2742, Aria.com). The pasta, with oregano, sage, tomatoes, garlic and uni, was created not by a chef, but by acclaimed artist and flm director Julian Schnabel, who saw that uni was used in a clam preparation in the restaurant’s Greenwich Village location and asked the chef to put some in his pasta. For a true Las Vegas original, head to Scott Conant’s Scarpetta in the Cosmopolitan. There, local executive chef Todd Sugimoto experimented with another preparation before deciding that the so-called “sea hedgehogs” paired best with the mild salinity of black squid ink tagliolini ($34, 702-698-7960, CosmopolitanLasVegas.com). He uses uni cream along with large segments of echinoderm, and adds sweet Dungeness crab and tobiko (fying fsh roe, which presents mild, slightly fruity tones). While the recipe was born here and fts in wonderfully with the other Italian dishes on the menu, Sugimoto makes no bones about the
fact that his time in Hawaii and his Japanese roots inspired the creation. “A lot of chefs nowadays are delving into Asian food,” he says. “And, obviously, here in Las Vegas, we have lot of Asian clients.” The fnal uni pasta I came across in my quest is served at Andiron Steak & Sea, although chef Brett Uniss doesn’t even mention the ingredient on the menu. Amid the shrimp, lobster and scallops in a classically Italian spicy tomato broth, his pappardelle ($30, Downtown Summerlin, 702-685-8002, AndironSteak.com) is fnished with just a bit of sea urchin. For the uninitiated, this could serve as an introduction to the somewhat challenging seafood. Like all cuisines, Italian food is still evolving. While uni is clearly making signifcant inroads, only time will tell if it will become a staple or just be a fash in the saucepan. I, for one, would like to see these spines stick.
PHOTO BY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
January 28–February 3, 2016
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DRINKING
There’s more to the Clique cocktail program than meets the eye By Xania Woodman
Michael Monrreal shakes up a round of 450 Powell shooters, Luck Be a Lady and his Benny Blanco.
CLIQUE BAR & LOUNGE in the Cosmopolitan clicks off all the boxes: a great location right between the lobby and casino foor; a stylish, understated design; a tempting smallbites menu with a little something for everyone; and a cocktail menu that takes you from post-conference through pre-dinner and all the way to post-club—or maybe even instead of the club altogether. What more could you ask for? Well, for one, how about sincerity, authenticity and a sense of humor? If a bar lacks those, the cocktail afcionados will turn up their gin-blossomed noses and exit faster than you can squeeze a lemon. (And that’s pretty fast.) Fortunately, Clique Hospitality Group has an ace up its sleeve in corporate mixologist Michael Monrreal, who has studded his latest menu with just enough knowing winks and playful nods to speak to those who speak cocktail. One just has to know where to look for them. Take his 450 Powell shooters, for example. Well, if you didn’t already know the address of San Francisco’s renowned Starlight Room bar in the Sir Francis Drake hotel, you do now. And if the bar tools being wielded by the gentlemen making tableside cocktails from twin gueridons look familiar, then you must have at some point crossed paths with Tony AbouGanim. The so-called Modern Mix-
January 28–February 3, 2016
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ologist worked at the Starlight Room before moving to Las Vegas in 1998 at Steve Wynn’s invitation, to build and oversee the frst all-fresh cocktail program in the city at his newest property, Bellagio. Abou-Ganim has since gone on to write two books and launch a barware line. But it was at the Starlight that he created his most successful cocktail, the Cable Car, now a bona fde modern classic that Monrreal prepares as a shooter using spiced rum, a house-made rooibos tea and orange cordial, and lemon juice under a cinnamon-sugar rim. See? Wink. That may be the most deeply storied cocktail on the Clique menu, but it’s not the only one: The One Night Stand is Monrreal’s nod to the Paloma; Luck Be a Lady is a pisco sour; and Stormin’ Normandie is a Ward 8 riff made with Calvados. And that’s just the menu’s frst page. When Clique Hospitality founder Andy Masi told Vegas Seven, “I believe that bottle service is great, and it’s great for nightclubs, but I don’t think that it’s something a lot of consumers want anymore,” VIP hosts from the Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay likely did a spit take: You’re telling me the former Light Group CEO is opening a dead-sexy craft-cocktail lounge in a major Strip casino-resort and isn’t doing bottle service? Is the sky falling, too? If you do see one of those bros tug-
ging uncomfortably at his collar and beading up with sweat, tell him to relax. There most certainly is bottle service at Clique, and it’s a beautiful and delicious thing to behold. It just looks a little ... different. Instead of a scantily clad girl in spangles and heels parading your order to you overhead, two burly men in sturdy service aprons that veritably yawp “men at work!” will roll one of two cocktail carts over to your table. Affectionately named Bertha and Gertrude (the carts, not the men; those are bartenders Antony Sazerac and Justin D’Angelo), they are routinely laden with all the makings of three smoked cocktails, two drinks with ingredients infused in an ISI charging canister, one that is caramelized and another—the pièce de résistance, Bow Street Banana—that is infused, smoked and caramelized. But Monrreal gets the most real with his tiki-meets-tropical Benny Blanco, an original creation featuring Casamigos Blanco Tequila, a spicy and brightly tart house-made pineapple-chili shrub, Velvet Falernum, lemon and agave nectar topped with club soda. “Most people aren’t into drinking vinegars,” Monrreal says, “so I wanted to take a chance.” That’s another box Clique checks off: daring. “But it’s not rocket science. We’re here to elevate the guest experience—one cocktail at a time.
POUR IT ON AT THE UNIVERSAL WHISKY EXPERIENCE & MORE Don your whiskey-drinking shoes and clear space in your carousing calendar for the Universal Whisky Experience, March 2-5, at Wynn Resorts (UniversalWhiskyExperience. com). The now four-day, 6-year-old affair was created by real estate developer and whiskey enthusiast Mahesh Patel for like-minded individuals to go all in on a super-premium whiskey event that this year includes a sold-out dinner at Joël Robuchon, myriad master classes and which culminates in a grand tasting gala. If you don’t already have your tickets for the Robuchon dinner, your experience will begin on March 3, when High Roller ticketholders can access the Encore Salon Suites to sample dream drams along the lines of last year’s stunners: The Dalmore Constellation 1978, Frapin Cuvée 1888, Glenfarclas 1966 Fino Cask, Mortlach 25 Year Old and Glenmorangie 25 Year Old. The Whisky Speed Dating dinner follows at Tableau. Master classes begin on the afternoon of March 4 and continue through March 5, covering Highland Park, Suntory, Ardbeg, Royal Salute, Balblair, The Glenlivet and more. For the rest of us, the Nth is the center of the Universal Whisky Experience series, a walk-around tasting featuring the world’s most distinguished and coveted whiskeys (6 p.m., March 4). Not officially part of the Universal Whisky Experience so much as it is a happy byproduct of so many liquor luminaries being in town, Artisanal Foods Café will host a Glenfiddich Scotch Dinner on March 1 (6:30 p.m., 2053 Pama Lane, 702-436-4252) to usher in the week of whiskey-fueled festivities. Hosted by Glenfiddich ambassadors Mitch Bechard and Jennifer Wren, the collaborative chef dinner will also welcome the Grant family’s Kirsten Grant Meikle. In the kitchen are chefs Johnny Church (Artisanal Foods Café), Nicole Brisson (Carnevino), Brian Howard (Grazing Pig Food Group), Geno Bernardo (Herringbone) and Desyree Alberganti (Gelatology). Guests will enjoy a progressive tasting of Glenfiddich 14, 15, 18, 21 and 26, as well as cocktails by Andrew Pollard of Wirtz Beverage. Stalk @ChefJohnnyChurc on Twitter for details on how to get tickets on February 1. In the meantime, and if only for Scotsman Bechard’s pleasure, bone up on your bawdiest, brogueiest “Och, aye!” –X.W.
PHOTOS BY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
DINING
It’s Getting Real
[ SCENE STIRS ]
MOVIES
Ben Foster and Chris Pine sport the wet look.
WATER EVERYWHERE Hold your breath to see The Finest Hours By Geoff Carter ➜ “I’M NOT AFRAID OF THE WATER;
it’s just that you can’t see what’s underneath,” says Miriam (Holliday Grainger) to her soon-to-be fancé, Coast Guard Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) in the opening minutes of The Finest Hours, a faithful retelling of a spectacular true-life maritime rescue. Webber’s reply describes both the guilelessness of his character, and the movie itself: “It’s just more water.” The Finest Hours follows in a grand tradition of More Water: the Craig Gillespie flm is replete with echoes of other ocean-bound disaster flms, from The Poseidon Adventure to Das Boot. But those flms didn’t have a Bernie Webber. He is humble to his core: obeys every regulation, respects his elders and superiors, and is so in awe of his girl that she’s the one who ends up proposing marriage. In short, it’s a very different kind of role for the actor who resurrected James T. Kirk, and Pine plays it with notes I didn’t know he had. He is soft-spoken and trips over his words. He questions his every move: “That’s gotta work, right?” In stressful moments, his default expression is not one of heroic ardor, but mortal fear. This genuinely reluctant hero is the linchpin upon which one of the two stories of Finest Hours turns, and Pine’s performance, easily his best to date, puts us completely in the picture. The other story has Ray Sybert (Casey Affeck) at its center. Sybert was frst assistant engineer of the SS Pendleton, an oil tanker snapped neatly in two during a violent storm that formed off the coast of New England in February 1952. Sybert faced myriad problems—lack of steerage, no radio (the radio room was in the other half of the ship, which sank), and an engine room leak that outpaced the Pendleton’s ability to pump water out. Affeck plays Sybert probably as he was: determined, but also softly amazed. In one terrifc scene, the engineer
explains the direness of the situation to the crew while delicately peeling the shell from a hard-boiled egg. In that moment, Affeck seems to have one foot completely out of the narrative: I wonder how they’re gonna get out of this? Both crews were severely tested, and The Finest Hours depicts the violence of a winter storm in ways that will have you legitimately holding your breath, especially when viewed in 3-D. When a wave hits the Pendleton, its crew gets bounced around like rubber balls. Webber’s efforts to get Coast Guard rescue boat CG-36500 out into open waters are punctuated by long, agonizing moments where the tiny, selfrighting boat is completely submerged. It’s to the flm’s credit and detriment alike that you fnish it, well, exhausted. However, it is nice to look at. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, recently of Blue Jasmine, shoots the coastal towns of Massachusetts as if they were already underwater—all greens, blues and browns. Gillespie, who directed the best-ever depiction of loneliness in Lars and the Real Girl, here does the same for stoicism; he gives virtually every person in the picture a battle you can’t see, in particular Bea Hansen (a terrifc Rachel Brosnahan), whose connection to Webber gives Miriam resolve at a moment she badly needs it. And through it all, Carter Burwell provides a quietly ennobling score that, like Webber, only becomes an action score because it has to. There are a couple of leaks in the flm, among them Chief Warrant Offcer Daniel Cluff, a war hero that the script reduces to a barking caricature that Eric Bana has the thankless job of playing. And as I said earlier, seeing a flm as intense as The Finest Hours is just the tiniest bit of an ordeal. But it’s one where you feel better for having come out the other side. The frst breath you take at the end of the flm seems so sweet, so completely earned. The Finest Hours (PG-13) ★★★★✩
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Carlos Santana January 28–February 3, 2016
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VegasSeven.com
The legendary musician on when he first heard an electric guitar, Woodstock and the joy of performing By Rob Miech
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You were 13 in 1960, at the Palacio de Municipal Park in central Tijuana, when you first heard an electric blues guitar. What do you recall about watching Javier Bátiz work that instrument?
Lauryn Hill had it right when she said, “It assaulted all my senses, it ignited my imagination and it totally infused me.” It takes a lot of courage to see something like that and just go for that. Some people listen to other things instead of their inner voice. For me, listening to that guitar … the way it was bouncing against the trees and the cars and the church across the street, and watching people looking at Javier—it’s a complex, holistic thing. I can remember the clouds, the
blue sky. I remember everything. I said, “This is what I want to do and who I want to be. Nothing else will be more important than this.” I thank my mom; she purposely and consciously took me there by the hand. She knew I was beginning to lose interest in music. My father had left [for San Francisco]. We were living in Tijuana. There was nobody to really push me, like he [had been] pushing me, toward music. When I heard that sound … I didn’t know until later that it was the sound of B.B. King and Freddie King and Albert King, all of that. I thank Javier every time I see him, because they say he opened the gateway for my existence, for my true calling.
You flew into Woodstock on a chopper early on a Saturday afternoon, saw an ocean of flesh, thought you were going to play that night, and Jerry Garcia gave you a hit of LSD. Then what?
[Promoter] Bill Graham said, “You need to go on right now or you guys are not going to go on.” The majority of the band knew that I had taken some altered-state stuff, thinking that we would go on at midnight. It was 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I just took a deep breath and, without knowing, created my frst mantra: Please, God, help me stay in time and in tune and I’ll never do this again.
That was the best Cirque du Soleil [show] I’d ever seen. (Laughs.) I saw how a woman walked. All the songs, like “The Stripper” and music from [Thelonious] Monk, were … what’s now called exotica music. But it copied the vocabulary that the best musicians in the world imitate, or emulate, which is the way a woman speaks or sings, like Billie Holiday or Miles Davis. The And did you do acid again? way Miles plays. BeautiOf course. (Laughs.) ful notes. It’s like when a What can fans woman puts expect from AN INTIMATE a hand on the Santana EVENING WITH her hip and IV (April 15) SANTANA: starts shaking reunion album? GREATEST her neck and This has got HITS LIVE cussing you so much out. It’s about energy, so House of Blues, absorbing much fre. Big Jan. 29-31, women, the teeth and big Feb. 3-6, way they walk claws. When From $89.50, and the way you frst hear MandalayBay.com. they talk, the it, you’ll feel way they do like you’re this and that. next to a real For being at such a ferocious lion or tiger young age, I had a portor black panther, like, folio of emotions and YYYYYEEEEOW W W! sensations. You have to, You’ll go, Ahhhh. I thank in one note, captivate [guitarist] Neal Schon and people. If you don’t know [keyboardist] Gregg Rolie, how to captivate people, everybody … the energy is you should do someintact from where we left thing else with your life off in Santana III. instead of being a musician. It’s a vocabulary I You have had an elite learned in Tijuana, from Las Vegas residency since women, about sassiness 2012—at the House of Blues and sacredness. in Mandalay Bay—but do you And you would play “Ave Maria” on violin in church on Sundays. Was that quite a paradox?
It seemed like a paradox then. But now, it just seems like you breathe in and you breathe out. You have two eyes, two lungs, two hands. I don’t consider it to be in confict. When I read books about Marvin Gaye or Donny Hathaway, [or] a lot of ministers, like Al Green, they seem to be in confict with spirituality and sex. … I don’t have a problem with it. I think it’s a gift. We should bless it and honor it.
still have the hunger of that kid who played at El Convoy?
It’s a thousand out of a hundred now. Before, it was a hundred out of a hundred. Over the past fve or seven years, it’s a thousand out of a hundred. I just realized it’s a real blessing, a real joy, to know that you can show up and bring it all with you.
What are Santana’s views on the Bible and the Constitution, and how cathartic was it for him to reveal that he was molested as a child? Read the full interview at VegasSeven.com/Santana.
PHOTO BY ADRIANO SCOGNAMILLO
SEVEN QUESTIONS
Soon after, at El Convoy, a club on Avenida Revolución in Tijuana, you were given a Fender Stratocaster. You made $9 a week, you’d start at 4 p.m. and finish at 6 a.m., you’d play for an hour, watch hookers strip for an hour, play for an hour. … What did all that teach you?