Latest
The Latest Thought
Jury Envy
What do you do when duty calls … and then stands you up?
July 12th, 2012
I have an embarrassing little confession: I was looking forward to reporting for jury duty in June. For years I watched friends and colleagues being summoned, legally required to skip a day’s work, smirkily complaining about the banality of civic duty. It was a bitter, compulsory club, and I craved to belong. Finally, I’d been chosen. Read more »
Character Study
After the Reign
July 12th, 2012
Anne Davis Mulford—better known as Princess Anne—has long loved the limelight. She’s famous for her big personality, the crowns she wears at parties, her work in the arts community and her role as a gay-rights activist. Now she’s ready to leverage her theatrical streak into an acting career. Read more »
Seven Questions
Lynda Carter
The pop-culture icon on her return to the Las Vegas stage, being an activist and the evils of Catwoman
July 12th, 2012
Wonder Woman can also belt out a song. Lynda Carter, who turns 61 on July 24, regularly performs at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, and she’s released two albums in the last three years, with At Last hitting the Billboard Top 10 for jazz. You can catch her with her 10-piece band at the Suncoast Showroom on July 14-15—alas, minus the short-shorts, kicky red boots and bullet-deflecting bracelets. Read more »
Seven Questions
Robert Beckmann
The artist on his classic works, our city’s burgeoning cultural scene and the one painting he wishes he could call his own
July 5th, 2012
To appreciate Robert Beckmann’s fascination with Southern Nevada, your first stop should be his website, RobertBeckmann.com. There you’ll find images of some of the most stirring works ever inspired by Las Vegas, including Vegas Vanitas (a series of paintings portraying Strip properties against the backdrop of centuries-oldmaster paintings) and the Body of a House and Kin series (chilling looks at the dark side of atomic experimentation at the Nevada Test Site). Read more »
About Town
Staking Out the Series
July 5th, 2012
Black Friday, the April 15, 2011, Justice Department crackdown on online poker, was supposed to cripple the game in the United States. At the time, experts were predicting a World Series of Poker Main Event that would drop back to pre-Chris Moneymaker levels. It’s true that Main Event numbers are down from the high-water mark in 2006, but as a whole last year’s Series drew a record number of attendees. And WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky expects similar numbers this year. Read more »
Green Felt Journal
How to Set a Fresh Table
July 5th, 2012
No one knows if Double Action Roulette will be the next Three-Card Poker or will disappear after its evaluation (early reports are favorable). But it’s crucial to the casino business that Richard Fitoussi and those like him keep fighting the good fight. Because even though most games never make it on the casino floor, those that do offer enough novelty to keep the business moving forward. And that is the only way, in the long term, it will continue to have appeal. Read more »
Sports
Fences, Beware!
July 5th, 2012
Denny Crine, a physical education and health teacher at Mannion Middle School, is competing against the 1988 American League MVP in the “Battle of the Titans” on July 11 at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif. The event will benefit the ALS Association’s Golden West Chapter. Read more »
The Week
An Idea That Shouldn’t Leave the Gate
July 5th, 2012
If anyone’s name belongs on this airport, it’s Sen. Pat McCarran’s—and not just because his legislation created the Civil Aeronautics Board, forerunner to today’s Federal Aviation Administration. As a U.S. senator, he helped obtain the gunnery school (later Nellis Air Force Base) that created the need for a new airport, and then he paved the way for its construction. Local officials named it for him because he made it possible. Read more »
The Latest Thought
No, You Don’t Need Your Own Nonprofit
Making a difference starts with the realization that it’s not about you
July 5th, 2012
Maybe it’s the ego-tinged duality of do-goodism: There’s charity, and then there’s being known for one’s charity. Or maybe it’s an extension of managing one’s money well: If I’m going to give money to a cause, I want to be super sure that every penny goes exactly where I want it to go, not wasted on unnecessary office supplies or staff outings. Read more »
Dispatch
The Assassin, Disarmed
At a Phoenix gallery, artist Paul Wilson imagines a different life for Lee Harvey Oswald
July 5th, 2012
So, why is Oswald in Hello Kitty underpants? The mannequin is part of My Life With Lee Harvey Oswald at Willo North Gallery in Phoenix. The installation by artist Paul Wilson features well-executed paintings, photomontages, video and collages that depict Oswald as “something other than the notorious alleged assassin of President Kennedy,” says Robrt Pela, the gallery’s curator. Read more »
