Phil Hagen
Editorial Director
Contact: 868-4557 • Email
He has been editor of some of Las Vegas’ most prestigious publications, including the award-winning Desert Companion, Architecture Las Vegas and Las Vegas Life, which won a Silver Medal for general excellence in 2003 from the City & Regional Magazine Association. He gave up five glamorous years of freelance editing, writing and house-sitting to launch Vegas Seven in February.
Recent Articles
Summer Guide
AC Dizzy
One homeowner’s uphill effort to take advantage of NV Energy’s heralded air-conditioning programs
May 23rd, 2013
NV Energy’s efficiency programs for consumers sure sound great: mPowered sends a technician by to set up free smart thermostats for your home, and CheckMe Plus offers a cheap air-conditioning system inspection and possible upgrades that could save a good deal of money on your power bill. With triple-digit temperatures already here, I couldn’t wait to join the Nevada households that have saved about $500 million over the past five years.
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The ABC's of Vegas AC
Tips and tidbits about your summer's best friend: air conditioning
May 23rd, 2013
Just a coincidence? It’s the 111th anniversary of modern air conditioning. Las Vegas was founded three years later.
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Paddle Down the River Mild
Laid-back kayaking in central Arizona
May 8th, 2013
If death-defying isn’t your speed, you’ll be happy to know that this adventure starts with a rubber “Ducky Kayak” and potentially ends at a bar. And “potentially” has nothing to do with the Verde River’s ferocity—just the fact that you have a choice of where your journey ends.
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The Backdoor to the Wild West
September 20th, 2012
You can have the Grand Canyon—you and the 5 million other tourists each year. I’ll take the nearby Sycamore Canyon, whose visitation is so slight that no one bothers to count. There’s no ranger booth, admission or pamphlets. Come to think of it, there’s not even a welcome sign.
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Willie Nelson and Family
Sunset Amphitheatre at Sunset Station, July 21
July 26th, 2012
If it had been awhile since you’d seen Willie live, there was no doubt an anxious adjustment period when he shuffled out from the wings and ground his way through the first few songs.
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Kris Kristofferson
Nov. 25, Orleans Showroom
December 1st, 2011
It took awhile to get the one-man show in gear on this Friday night. Maybe it was the onstage technical difficulties, which bothered the star and, only in turn, the audience. Maybe it was because we’re not getting any younger: Kristofferson is 75 now (that’s about 110 in Outlaw years), and the audience that filled the showroom seemed even older (hard to believe Janis Joplin hit No. 1 with the Kristofferson-penned “Me and Bobby McGee” 40 years ago).
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Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt
June 9th, 2011
It was like the two legendary troubadours were just passing through little ol’ Henderson, Nevada, and decided to put on a show for the neighborhood, if anybody’d be interested in coming. They’d brought a couple of amps and acoustic guitars. Green Valley Ranch had a ballroom and a bunch of chairs. What else was necessary?
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89Awesome
A tale of two mountain cities and the heavenly road that runs between them
May 12th, 2011
My bias for Flagstaff stems from the nostalgia of having lived there during the formative years of my adult life, in the late 1980s. But that experience also let me in on a fairly objective secret: that this mountain city in the pines is more than the base camp of northern Arizona’s wonderland (the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Sunset Crater, et al); it is itself a great destination.
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Why Not?
Why not turn Springs Preserve into our Central Park?
December 2nd, 2010
Sounds like a daydream, but it was part of the original mission statement. Unfortunately, an important aspect of the vision was overlooked: The Central Park seamlessly meshes with the city around it.
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Editor's Note
The Story Behind Our Storytelling
October 21st, 2010
In the fourth issue of Vegas Seven (Feb. 25), James Reza wrote an essay about the need to put on a storytelling session in Las Vegas. These curated but unscripted open-mike events are the rage in big cities on the West Coast, and Reza concluded that they’d be a great fit here, too—not only for us to keep up with the times culturally, but because these entertaining exercises might help us define our city’s “intangible sense of place.”
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