Cindi Reed
A&E Editor
Contact: 868-4506 • Email
As a Texas junior high student, she once despaired over a career aptitude test that determined her only ability was in the impractical realms of arts and entertainment. At the time, it seemed like a curse to a life flipping burgers. She found a better fate as the A&E Editor for Vegas Seven. Previously, Reed freelanced for publications such as Las Vegas Weekly and Us Weekly, worked in a casino, got a master’s degree in communication from Arizona State University and worked as a copy editor for 944. She is currently writing a novel.
Recent Articles
Austin Russell
Just Your Average Famous Guy
January 27th, 2011
Austin “Chumlee” Russell doesn’t mind if you think he’s the village idiot. In fact, that stereotype has made him famous. The affable Las Vegas native plays himself up to be a lovable doofus on the surprise hit reality TV show, the History Channel’s <em>Pawn Stars</em>. And viewers love it.
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Welcoming Baby 2011
Thoughts from the dance floor as the calendar changes
January 6th, 2011
New Year’s Eve on the Strip was a night of cascading gridlocks: First the streets to get to the casino; then the line to get into club; then the crowded dance floor; and finally, several hours later, the same thing in reverse. Must be what it’s like to live in California.
I turned the calendar at the Palazzo, and a parking miracle allowed me entry into the casino’s underground garage with three hours to spare before midnight. Like an ascent into heaven, I rose from a traffic nightmare into the celebratory winter wonderland of the hotel lobby.
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Reluctant Elvis
Johnny Fortuno lends his velvet voice to the King’s birthday parties, even if he’d rather be singing as himself
January 6th, 2011
Call it minimalism for the lounge music set. Singer Johnny Fortuno, 34, thinks Elvis Presley’s songs should stand on their own. So he hasn’t yet decided if he’ll don that famous jumpsuit when he sings at the Cannery’s two-day celebration honoring Presley’s 76th birthday on Jan. 8 (A Celebration of the King’s Life, $10, 8 p.m. Jan. 7-8, 507-5757). But he might, “for the diehard fans.”
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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.)
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“Sock It to Me Santa”
December 23rd, 2010
Not since the 1977 David Bowie and Bing Crosby duet “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” has there been a Christmas collaboration as delightfully wrong as Merry X-Mas Dammit From the Double Down Saloon ($10, available at Zia Records, the Double Down and on iTunes).
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Makin’ Whoopee
December 16th, 2010
On what would have been Frank Sinatra’s 95th birthday (Dec. 12), Wynn Las Vegas premiered Sinatra Dance With Me (Encore Theater, $69-$89, 7:30 p.m. Mon-Sat, 770-9966). Conceived, choreographed and directed by legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp, the 80-minute show combines Sinatra’s recorded vocal tracks with a live big band while telling an abstract boy-meets-girl story through dance of four young couples.
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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.”
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Small Is the New Big
December 9th, 2010
With its fifth annual minUMENTAL INVITATIONAL, Trifecta Gallery, located in the Arts Factory (107 E. Charleston St., 366-7001) makes being a local art lover so easy that it almost takes away the snob value. The month-long art show (through Dec. 24) is based on a nifty little concept: Bring together 26 artists and have them all make mini versions of whatever it is they usually create.
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Why Not?
Why not create a public vocational college?
December 2nd, 2010
Southeast Career Technical Academy has done a great job for years at the high school level, and the Valley has a growing assortment of private trade schools. The College of Southern Nevada teaches some trades, but its core mission remains academic. What Nevada needs is affordable public higher education that trains adults for the kind of hands-on, high-skill jobs that fall outside the bounds of traditional education.
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Country Singer Josh Gracin
December 2nd, 2010
A mere seven years ago, country singer and father of four Josh Gracin, 30, placed fourth in American Idol. And he has been fighting his good fortune ever since. “I face quite a bit of negativity,” he says of the way he is viewed by the “tightknit group” in Nashville. “The only way to separate myself from the idea that I got lucky was to write and produce my album.”
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