A&E
Soundscraper
Space-rock Christmas carol
December 23rd, 2010
I credit Seven writer and As Yet Unbroken drummer Pj Perez with turning me on to local modern-rock trio Atlas Takes Aim. In June, the band self-released it debut CD, The Way Out Is Through, and instead of sending me a review copy like any sensible band, they blogged and Twittered about the momentous occasion. Thankfully, Perez made me see their Dec. 9 set at Feelgoods. Read more »
Music
All Grown Up
Show proves the ‘End of the Road’ for Boyz II Men still a long way off
December 23rd, 2010
With Boyz II Men’s extended engagement at the Flamingo, Las Vegas finally offers nostalgia for my generation. Almost. Their single “I’ll Make Love to You” was No. 1 for 14 weeks in 1994. I was in seventh grade, and the song’s plaintive strains are now forever associated with the unsatisfied yearnings of a junior high slow dance. (Never mind that the lyrics were probably inappropriate for a 12-year-old.) Read more »
Movie Review
How Do You Know (PG)
★★★☆☆
December 23rd, 2010
Reese Witherspoon stars as Lisa, a fallen athlete torn between a playboy pitcher (Owen Wilson) and an embattled CEO (Paul Rudd) in the latest offering from rom-com king James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets, Spanglish). Read more »
Movie Review
Unhappily Ever After
The wrenching Blue Valentine tells one of the most honest love stories of the year
December 23rd, 2010
Movie intimacy reaches groundbreaking new heights in this shocking story of a young marriage on the rocks, thanks to the charisma and range of two of the screen’s most appealing new stars. Blue Valentine (opens Dec. 31) juxtaposes two narratives, set in the present and past, about love found and lost with uncompromising honesty. Read more »
CD Reviews
The Best Albums of 2010
December 23rd, 2010
This year, something seismic occurred in musicians’ collective imagination. What exactly I’m not sure. Perhaps it was related to the oncoming new dark ages. Or to a miserable political landscape where sheepish Americans gladly allow their bodies to be invaded by airport security. Or to the hopeless grind of a still-bad economy. Read more »
Music
Rock Star Resolution
30 Seconds to Mars play a New Year’s Eve show in Las Vegas for the first time
December 23rd, 2010
If you enjoy transcendent post-grunge music, don’t hate New Year’s Eve and still have unanswered questions about the plot of My So Called Life, the Pearl at the Palms might meet your Dec. 31 needs. Chart-topping rock gods 30 Seconds to Mars will give Las Vegas a darker soundtrack for its year-end festivities. Read more »
Art
Next Big Thing
December 22nd, 2010
Robert Knight was the last man to photograph Stevie Ray Vaughan in concert before the guitar virtuoso’s untimely death. The final thing Vaughan said to him was, “You’ll know me when you hear me.” This is where the film Rock Prophecies begins, with Knight’s journey to find the next Stevie Ray. Read more »
Art
Not Starving Artists
Five local Etsy.com top-sellers share their creative (and commercial) secrets
December 16th, 2010
It’s a challenge for creatives to make a living in Las Vegas, but a number of them have found a way by selling their work on Etsy.com. Launched in 2005, the 4.4 million-member-strong website helps individuals sell their handmade items, original art, vintage goods and artists’ supplies directly to Web surfers. Here, five of Las Vegas’ “Top Sellers”—those Etsians who have made at least 1,500 sales—open up about this venue for art in Las Vegas. Read more »
Art
The Picture of Health
With the new Rosenquist painting, the Lou Ruvo Center is the closest thing Las Vegas has to an art museum
December 16th, 2010
Combine the forces of two of Las Vegas’ aesthetic titans, and you’d naturally expect to see bombastic results. That’s exactly what happened when Steve Wynn, megaresort cultivator and high-stakes art investor, convinced the chairman of Keep Memory Alive organization, Larry Ruvo, that downtown’s Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health designed by Frank Gehry needed just one final adornment. The clinic already has more than 4,000 pieces in its art collection, 40 of which are in Las Vegas. So it had to be something monumental. Something important. Read more »
Book Preview
Mob Memories
December 16th, 2010
Although his life story mirrors the plot of an entire film genre, mobster-turned-government witness Andrew DiDonato doesn’t want you to think he’s a hero (or even a glamorous anti-hero). Instead, with his new biography, Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier’s Life Inside the Gambino Crime Family (Huntington Press, $16) by Dennis Griffin, he simply wants to “lay it all out there and let you see what life as a mob associate is like from the inside.” Read more »
