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Model citizeN The big idea behind Adam Throgmorton’s tiny buildings Plus A place where falafel, kimchi and hamburgers live in harmony

01 january 1 7

In the face of Uncertainty Anxiety, hope and opportunity in the age of Trump By Heidi kyser

Robert List Luis Montanez Rosita Castillo yucca advocate undocumented Student Community Health worker The Dawson Difference At The Alexander Dawson School, we can’t predict the future, but we can teach children how to shape it.

The Alexander Dawson School’s In Dawson’s Lower and Middle Research proves that learning how to theater students learn the basic skills Schools, we encourage students to play a musical instrument, as opposed of acting and theater craft. But develop individualized artistic to simply listening to music, has it’s not just about performing; our behaviors and processes. Giving our tremendous benefits to a student’s students also create and build all of students the support and artistic overall academic success in all areas of the theatrical sets, as well as select guidance to make their own choices – study. As a music educator at Dawson, their costumes and stage makeup. and yes, mistakes – helps them to my goal is to create an environment The overall emphasis is placed upon develop a true sense of self. Dawson where students not only develop a true learning to appreciate the arts and students experiment with ceramics, appreciation for and understanding of to embrace their creativity. More drawing, printing, sculpture, painting, music, but also find their own musical importantly, they learn to persevere, glass and woodwork. But no matter identity through performance or work with a team, and be courageous which medium they’re using, they composition. And it’s great to know and confident in front of an audience. learn to appreciate the artistic process, that, for our Dawson students, the -Sue Boyum, Theater and Choir Teacher take risks, and find their creative voice. benefits of music education extend -Chantelle Cook, Art Teacher beyond the classroom. -Mark Carroll, Orchestra Teacher

In Early Childhood, fostering creativity is essential to the development of the whole child. Whether our youngest Dawson students are painting, kneading clay, or creating found-object sculptures, we know each creative experience helps our students learn to express themselves artistically, boosts their confidence, and opens their eyes to the artful beauty of the world around them. (702) 949-3600 www.alexanderdawsonschool.org -Jude Ross, Art Teacher 10845 W. Desert Inn Road | Las Vegas, Nevada | 89135 Month 2015 Month 2015 2 DesertCompanion.Com DesertCompanion.Com 3 The Dawson Difference At The Alexander Dawson School, we can’t predict the future, but we can teach children how to shape it.

Party like it’s 10

wish I could write this sentence in such a way to sofa change. Online, we’ll dust off some stories at greater convey a sense of it emerging with a flourish from length, check in with sundry topics and subjects, and behind some glittery, billowing curtains amid a face up to any embarrassing predictions we’ve made. fanfare of trumpets and confetti-dazzle. Because Also, if you’re a reader (but not yet a subscriber) whose I IT’S THE FIRST MONTH OF DESERT COMPAN- monthly ritual is shaking out the 17 subscription cards ION’S TENTH-ANNIVERSARY YEAR!!! Quick his- we lovingly spam into each issue, go ahead and grab one tory: Sprung Athena-like out of the Zeus head of the this time around and take advantage of our $10 home- annual Nevada Public Radio Fall Cultural Guide, Desert delivery offer. And be sure to watch the desertcompan- Companion proper came into existence in 2007. It was a ion.vegas website for special 10-year-flavored events. It simpler time. Home values were soaring, a magical de- all culminates in September’s official 10th anniversary vice called the iPhone was captivating the world, and a issue, which, if the promise of our preliminary experi- DayGlo buffoon wreaking environmental and economic mental laboratory testing comes to fruition, will be made havoc on the country merely described Homer’s role in of cake. The Simpsons Movie. Art Director Christopher Smith I’d be obtuse not to acknowledge that 2017 will mark and I started here in January 2010 as the magazine’s first something much more significant: the presidency of full-time staff, aspiring to develop what had been a lively Donald Trump. And Nevada, with its diverse population, sidekick to the radio station into a distinct, fully fledged vast federal land holdings and tectonic tensions between editorial platform of its own. But we hardly did it alone. Western libertarian and urban progressive values, is on Convinced that Southern Nevadans desired and de- a course for deep impact. In “In the face of uncertainty,” served a true city-regional publication that balanced the (p. 49) staff writer Heidi Kyser sets out verve of a lifestyle mag with the mission-mindedness and to find what that impact might be, spend- integrity of public media, founding publisher Melanie ing time with people, organizations and Cannon led our rapid evolution into a monthly magazine interest groups likely to be affected — for in 2011. Ten years, 90 issues and four additional staffers both better and worse — by a Trump ad- later, we’re happily counterpunching the received nar- ministration. After an election campaign rative about print journalism gaspily dying in a smoke- marked by hyperbole and rancor, I’m wreathed post-truth liescape. Indeed, in a media world confident that readers of every political reshaped by the recession, the internet and dramatic persuasion will find Kyser’s even-handed changes in ownership, Desert Companion remains a mod- and earnest assessment refreshing. Per- est testament to the proposition that, shocker, providing haps most importantly, it’s another in- meaningful content still matters. stance of the thing we do best: Introduc- And you, the reader, certainly deserve thanks for being you to the fascinating range of people Andrew Kiraly ing part of the equation. So consider this an invitation to who call Las Vegas home. editor a year-long party. For this anniversary year, we’re con- verting our Notes & Letters page into The Look Back, a riffy retrospective Next on stories we’ve written, issues and MOnth Brace your people we’ve covered, and factoids superlatives for we’ve accumulated like so much linty Follow Desert Companion our Best of the www.facebook.com/DesertCompanion City issue! www.twitter.com/DesertCompanion

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4C Magazine CCO: AM: Erin Zunich Live: 7” x 10” CD: Randy Hughes AP: Sandy Boss Febbo Trim: 7.875” x 10.75” AD: Jeff Terwilliger PP: Charlie Wolfe Bleed: 8.125” x 11” CW: Sheldon Clay PM: Thako Harris 1SOAOO160122A Photo: Tyler Gourley PRF: COLORS PRODUCTION NOTES APPROVALS Cyan • All line art & logos are repro Proof_____ AD_____ CW_____ GCD_____ AE_____ Prod_____ Client_____ • Unless specified by workorder, all other images Magenta Last Touched :patrick.cain, 6-24-2016 1:06 PM, Production:2016:Subaru:SOA:OO_ are FPO Yellow Brand:6OO0122_MY17_National_Print_Ads:1SOAOO160122A_17LEG_NotJust_03.indd Black Printed at: None Revision #: 3 Scale: 1” = 1” January 2017 VolUme 15 Issue 1 [email protected]

et’s begin with an auspicious Genealogy: Before Desert Companion, Nevada Public Radio quote, shall we? “The past is published the Cultural Guide and an Almanac L never dead. It’s not even past.” Most frequent cover motif: Food and drink, 22 times, Perfect! Thanks, William Faulker. in nearly every incarnation, from Caesar salad to steaks That’s just the sort of deepish apho- (twice), sea bass to escargots, ice cream to donuts, burgers rism we need to embark on this, our to pasta, beer to, er, beer rolling celebration of 10 years of Desert Quote from 2008 that sounds eerily current: “Let’s not Companion. That’s right, as of 2017, the talk politics for a moment. With the finish line in sight, magazine you’re currently enjoying on we’ve been blogged out and You-Tubed to the max.” — Flor- your couch, in a coffee shop or at the ence Rogers, president’s note, September-October 2008 wheel of your car has been your guide Second most frequent cover motif: Fashion, 11 times to living in Southern Nevada for a full 2: Covers featuring kayakers decade. Hooray, us! Dubious parenting advice from 2009: “Yet Nevada is a We’ll mark the occasion with a special, fantastic place to raise kids, for they are exposed to the worst super-fancy, redesigned 10th anniversary issue in September, from an early age.” — Dayvid Figler, Winter-Spring 2009 possibly a massive shindig of some kind and — if certain people 1: Statewide staff road trips, chronicled in May 2016 have their way — branded vuvuzelas. (Fingers crossed!) Watch Wise advice from 2010: “Going forward, rational exuber- this space and desertcompanion.vegas for more details as the ance is key: Las Vegans, like all Americans, need to retrain time approaches. themselves to think more like casino owners than casino Until then, because Faulkner’s right about the past never be- players, to be realistic and ing dead, we will use this space each month to highlight different disciplined instead of finger- undead facets of the magazine’s life and times. Let’s begin with crossing, magical-thinking an overview blast of factoids: suckers.” — Kurt Andersen, from “2020 Visions,” January- First issue: January 2007 February 2010 First cover: “The Really Great Outdoors” Third most frequent cover Issues important to the magazine: “Sense of place,” motif: The outdoors, nine “pride in community” — from Lamar Marchese’s president’s times, beginning with a photo letter in first issue of kayakers on the first issue Familiar names in first issue: Christopher Smith, still Noteworthy people on covers: actor art director; contributors John Curtas, Michael Green, Dennis Hopper (second issue), singer-actor Bette Matt Jacob Midler (third issue), legendary Nevada politician Joe 90: Number of issues altogether, counting this one Neal (61st issue) 3: Issues of Desert Companion Family, not counted above Words from 2014 that sounds eerily current: “In Frequency: It began with three issues a year, then today’s world, you have to be able to talk to both sides bumped up to bimonthly and with the January 2011 of the aisle. They have to know you’re not such a shrill issue went monthly partisan. ... The essence of government is consensus- 2: Number of editors — Phil Hagen (2007-2010), Andrew building, if you look at it, and any way you cut it, you Kiraly (2010-present) have to get there.” — Sig Rogich, January 2014

Correction: In the December issue, our profile of Derek Stevens misidentified his brother; his real name is Greg Stevens.

january 2017 4 DesertCompanion.vegas MAY 2016 DesertCompanion.vegas 5 January 2017 VolUme 15 Issue 1 www.desertcompanion.vegas

Feature

49 in the face of uncertainty With the Trump era promising to upend many old norms, we meet five Southern Nevadans who feel a new sense of either anxiety or optimism By Heidi Kyser rosita castillo: christopher smith christopher castillo: rosita

January 2017 6 DesertCompanion.vegas job #: 31003 client: The Smith Center title: Upcoming Shows Montage Desert Companion January ______run date: January 2017 release date: 12/9/16 release via: email ______technician: Pam software: InDesign CC color: 4-color fonts: Neutraface ______pub: Desert Companion bleed: 8.875” x 11.25” trim: 8.375” x 10.75” live area: 7.625” x 10” HI-RES MECHANICAL AN EVENING WITH SEVEN THINGS I’VE LEARNED: January 17–22 Burt Bacharach AN EVENING WITH Ira Glass Motown® is a registered trademark of UMG Recordings, Inc. February 11 February 10 JessePhoto Michener by Photo by Eric Ray Davidson

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32 departments

MODEL CITIZEN THE BIG IDEA BEHIND ADAM THROGMORTON’S TINY BUILDINGS All Things 28 profile 41 Dining 59 The Guide PLUS A PLACE WHERE FALAFEL, KIMCHI AND HAMBURGERS LIVE IN HARMONY 16 journalism With Big dreams fit into small 42 the dish Family Culture, and lots of it. 01 JANUARY his new venture, pundit worlds with modelmaker is the backstory at the 17 Jon Ralston decares Adam Throgmorton Hummus Factory 64 End note independence By T.R. Witcher 45 eat this now The Will you keep your New 18 games Blinded by Year’s resolutions? Take 32 culture pepito tasted ’round the the knight world! our totally, 100 percent The Latinos Who Lunch serious quiz to find out. In the face of 20 zeit bites What podcasters create a new 45 cocktail of the By Scott Dickensheets UNCERTAINTY Anxiety, hope and opportunity in the age of Trump does the Foxx say? month BY HEIDI KYSER Maple syrup + Robert List Luis Montanez Rosita Castillo brown voice for the YUCCA ADVOCATE UNDOCUMENTED STUDENT COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER Jameson = delicious 22 big picture Party Trump era like ya mean it! By Kristen Peterson 46 Block Party on the Check out all the places cover 24 Object lEsson to eat in the vicinity of ... Toys will be toys Photography Desert Breeze Park? Yep, Christopher Smith 26 Open Topic He Desert Breeze Park. was stopped and frisked — what does that say about police-community relations? illustration: rick sealock; baha mar model: anthony mair; latinos who lunch courtesy justin favela; falafel: sabin orr sabin falafel: favela; justin courtesy who lunch baha mar model: anthony mair; latinos rick sealock; illustration:

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Fancy jawas, pink Hot Wheels and other toy stories all the news that’s fit to click page 24

journalism igh. Remember the days when fake news was something to laugh at? An outrageous headline on Sthe Weekly World News in the checkout rack, a bit- Editor at large ing Onion story you just had to share on social media? But Jon Ralston’s ambitious news site will write it turns out that fake news — not mere silliness or satire, but fabricated stories purporting to be true — is no joke. A another chapter in the colorful history of BuzzFeed analysis found that in the run-up to the election, independent Nevada media Facebook users read and shared more hoax stories than By Andrew Kiraly real, actual news articles — a factor that likely influenced the outcome of the election. On the upside, that discovery seems to have sparked a renewed appreciation for the role of real journalism in an informed society: According to the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, many news organizations, including Pro Publica, the New

January 2017 Photography brent holmes DesertCompanion.vegas 15 ALL Things journalism Hear more Jon Ralston York Times and The Guardian, looks ahead bylines such as Ned Day. UNLV that has staying power. Hopefully this is a saw a spike in donations and to the 2017 history professor Michael Green model that’s financially sustainable.” subscriptions after Nov. 8. Legislature joined the staff when he was 17. Ralston is optimistic. “We’re starting Jon Ralston is hoping some on “KNPR’s “We competed journalistically purely with donations,” he says, “and we State of of that love comes his way. Nevada” at (with the R-J and Sun), but never hope to be self-sustaining by the third You know Ralston as a veteran desertcom- financially,” Green recalls. “Finan- year, and we hope to have a combination political columnist and TV panion.com/ cially, it was something between a of donations (and) special events, maybe hearmore pundit (and, in disclosure, failure and disaster, but we published premium content on the site later on, so contributor to “KNPR’s State the work of some very good journal- we’re going to have four or five revenue of Nevada” and Desert Companion). This ists.” Brown’s devotion to the newspaper sources in the end.” Some of the brand- month, you’ll know him as something led him down some dark paths. He fell name benefactors so far, Ralston says, else: As founder and editor of The in with mob associate Frank Rosenthal, include MGM Resorts International and Nevada Independent. who laundered money through the Switch, which he says have each pledged “There’s a need for an independent newspaper. Brown even embarked on a $250,000. Ralston anticipates an annual journalism site in Nevada; there’s a failed extortion scheme against then-Gov. operating budget of $1 million a year. void here,” he says, “and I think we can Bob List to help get Rosenthal a gaming “This whole world of fundraising is fill it.” So far, that “we” comprises an license. Brown died in June 1984, and the totally new to me,” he says. editorial team that includes Valley Times died two weeks later. Wait a sec — Ralston, editor and fund- “There’s a familiar names such as Managing Arguably part of the lineage as well: Las raiser? Yes, at least for now. “I’m doing need for an Editor Elizabeth Thompson and Vegas CityLife, founded in 1992 as The Las (fundraising) because I have to do it,” he columnist and author John L. Vegas New Times. A weekly newspaper says, promising transparency about the independent Smith. The Nevada Independent’s known as much for its snarky contrarian- donor list and admitting a certain discom- journalism site board includes former KLAS ism as its substance, CityLife over the years fort with the dual roles, a possible con- in Nevada ... Channel 8 anchor Paula Francis hosted recognizable names such as Steve flict-of-interest quagmire. “I’ve thought and Bob Stoldal, best known for Sebelius, George Knapp and Geoff Schum- about it, and I’m probably going to address and I think we his three-plus decades leading acher (and, in disclosure, mine). It was it in a column or an editor’s note at some can fill it.” the news division at Channel 8 eventually purchased in 2005 by Stephens point,” he says. “It’s uncomfortable in the (he’s also a KNPR contributing Media, then-owner of the Review-Journal, sense that I’m going out and asking people editor). Ralston aims for The which shuttered the weekly in 2014. I have covered, and will cover, for money. Nevada Independent (theneva- The history extends to online journal- It’s not the position I wanted to be in, but I daindependent.com) to go live this month ism as well: Hospitality executive and think my brand, such as it is — whatever it with an initial full-time staff of seven. philanthropist (and one-time congressio- is — after covering politics and govern- Beyond in-depth coverage of the 2017 nal candidate) Tom Gallagher started a ment in this state for 30 years, is going to Legislature, The Nevada Independent will news and commentary website, Nevada- help jump start this.” cover politics, education and business. Today.com, that existed from November He’s not just relying on his brand. The Its mission statement sparkles with am- 2006 to December 2007 and published Nevada Independent has a few newish bition: “To change the face of journalism writers such as Steve Friess, Hugh Jackson ideas to attract readers, too, including a in Nevada and establish a new paradigm and Bob Shemeligian. Gallagher remem- plan to phase in Spanish-language versions for nonprofit, community-supported news bers it as a labor of love — because, then of stories and foster reader interactivity. organizations.” But the “new paradigm” as now, nobody had quite figured out how “That’s one other thing the media has — independent, fact-based journalism to make online news profitable. Gallagher not done well, either locally or anywhere supported by donors — is based on princi- estimates he sunk up to $150,000 into else — interactivity. People feel alienated ples and models that have been around for the site, not to mention the manual work from the media. They feel the media’s ei- decades. (Public radio, anyone?) required to post links to national stories in ther out of touch, biased or isn’t doing the Not to mention the spirit. Indeed, a time before automated news aggregators job that it was meant to do,” he says. “We’re The Nevada Independent won’t be the became common. “I was doing a lot of the going to encourage interactivity with our first upstart news platform launched in aggregation myself, staying up late at night readers — and criticism from our readers, hopes of competing with mainstays such to pull stuff from the East Coast papers without fear of us having the last word. We as the Review-Journal, the Las Vegas and London. We were a little before our want our readers to engage with us, we Sun and the Reno Gazette-Journal. For time. ... I finally just decided it wasn’t want to have forums, we want to encour- instance, there was the Valley Times. worth the money.” Gallagher sees promise age dialogue. We want people to feel that Bob Brown, a former Review-Journal in the nonprofit journalism model and this is the community’s newspaper.” editor, bought a sleepy North Las Vegas says he plans to donate to The Nevada In- With such an upbeat outlook, it’s periodical in 1973 and turned it into a dependent. “It’s an expensive proposition enough to make you even consider citywide daily, publishing iconic Vegas to do any kind of good journalism online reading the comments.

January 2017 16 DesertCompanion.vegas

ALL Things field notes

games Knight moves What happens when a bumbling chess dilettante takes on a blindfolded grandmaster? Reality check!

By andrew kiraly

dilettante. I took up chess a the corner and unleashes a triple attack few years back, hoping, I dunno, with his rook, bishop and knight on one to bring some sense of ele- of my position’s tender spots, a disaster I gance, clarity and intellectual manage to hurriedly deflect with a pawn mystique to my life. Since then, push; then, when I think I’m turning the I’ve played weekly casual games tables with a rook attack on his queen, with friends over wine and Gareyev calmly deploys his powerful chatter at a Russian restaurant, bishop to the f7 square to muzzle the plot. but I’ve sometimes wondered All the while, he’s methodically crystal- how well I might do if I gave lizing his pawns into a sort of telescoping the game my deep and complete cybernetic spear that eventually reaches attention. That’s what I have the into my seventh rank and, in the ultimate opportunity to do at UNLV. indignity, checks my king. During my But there is no elegance or turns, a small group gathers around my clarity to be found on this day. board. At first, I think they’re watching hess is kind of having a moment Instead, I’m hunched in my in rapt wonderment, silently marveling at right now. Magnus Carlsen, the chair at table 39, staring mutely at the how this untrained amateur is marshal- Cphotogenic world champion, board as though trying to telekinetically ling from his deepest brain brazen, novel recently defended his title in New York fling it across the room, attempting to strategies that are giving the grandmaster in a series of games that climaxed in somehow extricate myself from what a run for his money. When I eat Gareyev’s a dramatic tiebreaker. This fall, Disney seems to be an iron glacier of Gareyev's c4 pawn with my queen and simultane- released an acclaimed biopic about pieces slowly advancing to my side of ously give check, I swear I can hear the Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy the board. As I’m trembling with pained theme from Chariots of Fire tinkling from who rose to renown from the slums of concentration, in the center of the room, the celestial spheres! But I soon realize Katwe. Technology has given a profile Gareyev, a lanky twentysomething with they’re actually observing me with clini- boost to the ancient game, too, with a flowing fauxhawk, pedals languidly on cal amusement; I’m a rag doll being toyed apps and websites connecting players an exercise bike and nibbles fruit as he with by a god. Over 17 hours, I manage, all over the world. And some of chess’s calls out moves from behind his eyemask: at best, a creditable if unimaginative more sensational traditions, such as the “Game 39 ... bishop to g5.” defense against a precision onslaught by a blindfold simul — that is, a blindfolded That was move 12, where he pinned terrifying mentat in an eyemask. Near the player, relying solely on verbal notation, one of my knights to my queen, para- end, I’m lashing out with petty checks challenges multiple opponents who have lyzing it so that a few moves further on, and pointless maneuverings that only the advantage of being able to see their Gareyev could snatch both my knight and delay the inevitable. boards — are finding a welcome place in my hapless pawn (which, in a moment Bleary-eyed and half-crazed with a world hungry for spectacle. of desperate affection, I had nicknamed exhaustion, I resign the game at 1 a.m. On December 3, Grandmaster Timur “eggling,” knowing how tenuous and Despite the bruising experience, I haven’t Gareyev brought that spectacle to UNLV, fragile its existence was) that was being lost any appetite for my weekly pickup where the man who calls himself “The guarded by the knight. matches over drinks and dinner. On the Blindfold King” attempted to set a world His opening skirmish is a little bit of contrary, I’m particularly looking forward record by playing blindfolded against introductory tenderizing for the real to the next one — because with all the 48 opponents, including me. I’m what’s punishment to come. As the game pro- wine, food and chatter, at least I have a called a patzer, a fumbling if enthusiastic gresses, Gareyev spirits his king away to handy excuse when I lose.

January 2017 18 DesertCompanion.vegas ILLUSTRATION BRENT HOLMES NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO RECYCLING DAY Our final Recycle Day event of the year took place this past November on the College of Southern Nevada Charleston Campus. With one of our best turnouts yet, over 800 cars passed through our various stations collecting items for Goodwill, pill take back through Care Coalition, proper disposal of electronics and other goods with the Blind Center and Republic Services, and shredding services provided by Shred-It Las Vegas. Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Subaru of Las Vegas. Thank you to those who participated in this event, with having over 57,000 pounds of recycled products collected! Be on the lookout next year for more opportunities to recycle with Nevada Public Radio.

ca ecoalition

©Antonio Gudino ALL Things zeit bites

Deleted scenes from Sleepless

What you won’t see when Jamie Foxx and T.I.’s film about corrupt Las Vegas cops hits theaters this month

“Bad to the Bone” music EXIT INTER VIEW montage in which villains fall prey to Foxx and T.I.’s Mr. Public Art moves on zany booby traps.

rtist Michael Ogilvie, who has What’s needed to get public administered public art programs art to the next level? Afor the city of Las Vegas and, most It needs to take on big problems. In Crooked cops pause recently, Clark County, is leaving town after Philadelphia, they use their mural program while beating a perp a string of successes that include the coun- to help reduce recidivism in prisons, and it is to lament the missing “Las” in Vegas Golden ty’s “Centered” project — grabby artworks working. In Seattle, artists like Buster Simp- Knights. “It’s ‘the mead- enlivening medians on local roadways son are creating art for less toxic sanitation ows,’ not just ‘meadows,’ — and last month’s installation of Wayne processes. And here, Sush Machida created you know?” a plaintive Littlejohn's “Dream Machine” sculpture in art to ease the pain of abandonment for Foxx says. Beating resumes. Siegfried & Roy Park (above). He’ll be doing children going into Child Haven. Public art, similar work in San Jose, California. So we like any good government service, should Tender scene in which picked his brain one last time. solve problems and help make life better. Foxx reads son bedtime Also, Las Vegas needs to continue to story; every line punctuat- ed by sick bass drop. What changes, for better or employ local artists. If you employ them, they worse, have you observed in will stay (and more will come). If Las Vegas the state of public art here? wants to take its public art to the next level, it In fleeting cameo, Sheldon There is no “worse” unless you reach needs to keep the ingenious artists living here Adelson announces that back before the 1970s, when public art was engaged and employed. This will grow the he run Bartertown, then leaves on shoulders of virtually nonexistent in Las Vegas. Public creative economy, and the larger the creative Steve Sisolak. art has come on in a big way in this town, economy becomes, the greater its impact. Las and part of that is because we have this Vegas can do this if it can retain and attract vast landscape, a giant earth canvas, whose talent. But it won’t be able to do it with just Car chase skids through mayor’s state of the city inhabitants yearn for more than asphalt public art. The entire art infrastructure address, waking no one. and concrete. (museums, galleries, collectors) needs to be in One of the challenges in public art here place for public art to get to the next level. has simply been to defend it and educate Foxx and T.I. throw up the public. Thankfully, it is not too hard What would be your dream hands in disgust when they realize whole public art project in Las Vegas? to do when you have hundreds of talented movie premise is a fake artists who call this area home and who Developing an artwork that doubles news story. are creating superior visual art. When the as a water generator/harvester. It can be art is strong, it stimulates public imagi- done, even in regions as arid as this. An nation. Imagination leads to innovation. artist-designed water generator/harvester Innovation leads to a better world. So that can nourish millions of people is where “better” is the road Las Vegas is on now my imagination goes. Water is our biggest in regards to public art, and hopefully it problem. Let’s fix it with public art. Or at the stays that way. very least get the dialogue going. Scott Dickensheets

January 2017 20 DesertCompanion.vegas ILLUSTRATION BRENT HOLMES Director DOMINIC CHAMPAGNE

Music Directors SIR GEORGE MARTIN & GILES MARTIN

*Valid on select seating areas and categories. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Management reserves all rights. Subject to availability. Some restrictions apply. ALL Things the big picture

desperate insouciance Party, people! Ah, the raucous glory of New Year's Eve in Las Vegas as an uncertain new era begins illustr ation by Rick Sealock

here have you gone, Dick Clark — our nation turns its auld lang syne to you. WAfter all, when the big ball dropped on January 1, how confident were we that it wasn’t a wrecking ball? Now more than ever we could use an ageless, groovy-haired, preternaturally cheery hepcat to smile us into a future we can dance to. Sadly, Dick’s gone, but he would want you to party on, party people! And if everything has happened as usual (we’re writing this in December), hundreds of thousands of Americans just did exactly that on the Strip and Fremont Street. Good for them! At the rump end of 2016, who didn’t need the dopamine rush of righteous merrymaking? The restorative high spirits of a 3-2-1 countdown to midnight? The purgative release of public vomiting? And surely it felt good to reclaim a nonpolitical use of the word party. On January 1 we rang out a year that registered a sanity-rattling 9.5 on the WTF scale, and the aftershocks will keep rolling in for a while, whether it’s the long tail of this Russian hacking business, vexing domestic fissures or the White House raising the curtain on its four-year run of Tweetzapoppin’. No matter which side, team, crew, coven, social tribe, hunting party, book club or justice league you belong to, uncertainty’s thick in the air, anxiety too, so the mass shindig of New Year’s Eve will probably have to hold us over for a while. Still, a raucous year-end blowout is a Vegas-style way to put your chips on the proposition that it remains possible to take a cup of kindness with one’s fellow revelers, whomever they are and however unlike you they might be: black, brown or white, red or blue, coastal or Midwestern, Raiders fans or normal humans, all of us united behind the wisdom of philosopher Ron White (coming February 10-11 to The Mirage), who says, “If life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” In that spirit, welcome to fabulous Las Vegas, 2017! After that, who knows? Maybe a nation united in search of a proper hangover cure will find a few other things to agree on, too. Scott Dickensheets

January 2017 22 DesertCompanion.vegas January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 23 ALL Things object lesson

collecting Toy stories When it comes to childhood collectibles, Johnny Jimenez of the Toy Shack doesn’t play around By Jason Scavone

ohnny Jimenez never bent his Wookiee. (That’s for the Ralph Wiggums of the world. The ones Jwho actually took their toys out of their boxes.) No, Jimenez had the collector’s instinct all along and kept everything nice and minty fresh. It paid off in 2005, when he opened his first iteration of the Toy Shack, dealing in part from his personal collection. Since 2010, Jimenez has been at his Neonopolis location, where he deals in the vintage, the rare and the offbeat. If your stocking was bereft of your personal Rosebud, this might be where you can make up for Santa’s shortcomings.

What was the thing that got you into toys? My dad was a coin collector, and he collected old cameras. We would look every morning in the classified ads and go to yard sales or estate sales. I gravitated to toys. He taught me how to date something, without knowing anything about it, by the materials and where it was made. I learned a lot of that stuff from my dad. 1

What were the toys that got you into collecting? I started collecting early tin toys. I started doing tin toys from the ’50s and ’60s. I (1) 1950 Gilbert U-238 started doing Star Wars later. As the years went by, I would see it and I’d start picking Atomic Energy Lab it up, and it kind of grew until people started looking for the toys in the early ’90s. Gilbert, famous as the maker of the Erector Set, was looking to expand on When a new toy-based movie franchise starts up, how much its line of chemistry sets by capitalizing does that change your strategy? on all the whiz-bang fun of Hiroshima. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. When G.I. Joe came out, the first movies So they made the U-238 Atomic Energy weren’t all that exciting, and it turned off a lot of collectors. The Star Wars thing will Lab, which contains actual uranium and never die. With Marvel, everyone was scared of that, but they’ve done a great job a Geiger counter so you can “prospect” with the Marvel movies. for radioactive material. Fun for the whole family! Of which you’ll be the last What was the one gift you always wanted for Christmas that of the line, after you go sterile. you never got? I was very lucky because I had three brothers, so I would convince my brothers (2) 1950s Leslie-Henry Gene to go after the toys I wanted. I would be able to play with their toys and keep mine Autry cap guns in the package. What I didn’t get as a kid were a lot of Transformers I wanted. They It was a better time. A time when were kind of expensive, and there were so many of them. I remember going to kids’ mildly simulated violence wasn’t treated birthday parties, and everyone was there to see him get Devastator. Come to find out like a threat to the very bedrock of the kid gets some Go-Bots and everyone disappears out of the park. civilization. The Singing Cowboy seems, in hindsight, an odd choice to bust a cap.

January 2017 24 DesertCompanion.vegas Photography Lucky wenzel 2 4

3 out. And by distort, Mattel meant “sound like you were messing up your cousin’s Burger King order.” Still. Giant wolfophone.

(3) 1968 Mattel Hot Wheels From their initial year, Hot Wheels out- shined the more staid Matchbox. Jimenez has several from the debut set, including a few pink ones, which turn out to be the hot ticket item. “Hot Wheels thought if they painted a car pink that girls would play with it,” Jimenez said. “It wasn’t true. And the boys didn’t want the pink ones. What happened with the pink cars, when I buy But cap guns were big business, even for the cloak — for a hot minute. Kids and parents a collection, the pink cars were absolutely most mild-mannered of cowpokes. Jimenez complained that they were paying full price perfect because a kid never wanted to show has about a dozen finely crafted cap guns for the half-size Jawa, so Kenner, to demon- his friends he had a pink car, or he’d take from the heyday of the ’50s and ’60s, and strate value, replaced the easily ripped plastic a hammer to it, or paint it another color. this lovingly jeweled Gene Autry holster set with a slightly less tacky cloth robe. But now In the collector world, those are the most will make you want to practice your quick the vinyl Jawas command big numbers. This sought-after cars.” draw and slightly irritate your coworkers’ one, still on the card, is worth $10,000. eardrums. (4) 1983 Kenner Strawberry Short- 1984 Mattel Masters of the Universe cake Berry Happy Home 1978 Kenner Star Wars Snake Mountain Girls got a bum deal on Strawberry Short- Jawa, vinyl cape He-Man’s pad, Castle Grayskull, had been cake playsets. Snake Mountain came with Any child of the ’80s worth his salt knows out for two years before Skeletor was able to everything but an evil plan to steal the Power that the cheap vinyl capes that came on stake claim to his own piece of Eternia real of Grayskull, but the Cake’s Berry Happy Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia and Darth estate. Snake Mountain was the far cooler of Home was just a glorified dollhouse. All the Vader action figures were only slightly less the two, because it came with an evil attack furniture was sold separately, to the eternal disappointing than the miscolored lightsaber snake, shackles to get boring old Man-at- joy of parents everywhere. By the time they that slid out of Luke’s hand. (Yellow? Were Arms out of the fight and a giant, detachable got to the Berry Snuggly Bedroom, they had they watching the same movie we were?) wolf-head microphone to distort your voice. to be tossing choice words at Apple Dumplin’ The Jawa figure also had the same flimsy For the six weeks it worked before crapping and Plum Puddin’.

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 25 ALL Things open topic

society

caught jaywalking. That’s right — I crossed Las Vegas Boulevard at Carson against a “don’t walk” signal. Apparently that’s a real scourge Downtown. But if my experience was indicative of the broader approach, Metro’s investigative tactics might be the bigger threat to our community. Why do minor stops so often include body searches when experts say these tactics do more harm than good? “When you’re doing searches on large numbers of people, the overwhelming majority of whom have done nothing to warrant that, people know what’s going on, and they don’t take kindly to it,” says David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “They may feel humiliated or scared, they may feel powerless and bullied, and the thing is, that doesn’t go away. People carry it around with them, and to the extent that Stopped it’s an almost universal experience in communities of color to have these kinds of encounters with police, these things and frisked are passed on through the community.” An expert on the dynamic between po- What should have been a small incident lice methods, crime stats and community opens a window onto a larger disconnect relations, Harris says stop-and-frisk- between police and the community style tactics net evidence at a fairly low By Daniel Hernandez rate, and the evidence they do nab tends be relatively trivial — small amounts of marijuana and the like. Metro doesn’t y hand was on Carson Kitchen’s door handle — I wondered whether my keep records of body searches that don’t friends were waiting in the patio or bar — when a cop yelled for me to “stop result in arrests, so it’s hard to tell how Mright there.” They approached on bicycles, an Officer Thiele leaping from his effective the strategy is in Clark County. as if prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat. I was informed of my violation. Then But in New York, 98.5 percent of stop- after confirming I was a local who “should know better,” the interrogation turned to and-frisks failed to produce a weapon. whether I’d ever been arrested before. Guests in the restaurant’s front window stared There, the tactic was deployed with at us, curious, I’m sure, about exactly what I’d done. Thiele also wanted to know if I’d little probable cause until it was deemed received previous citations in Nevada. And was I carrying a weapon? The answer to all unconstitutional in 2013, because black of the above was no, but he asked if his partner could search me anyway. and Hispanic men were disproportional- I now had my hands up against a wall in a Downtown alley while a Metro officer ly singled out. patted me down for weapons. I’d complied because I wanted to calm what felt like an Aggressive practices like these hurt oddly hostile situation. Thiele said, “Spread your legs, and put your hands behind your law enforcement’s relationship with the back like you’re praying.” So I did as told. My hands outstretched behind my back, community. Harris says they erode public palms touching, I was put into a painful wrist hold. The officer searched the insides trust and might result in an unwillingness of my pockets, going as far as to dig two fingers into the coin pouch on the front of my to cooperate with actual criminal inves- jeans. I assumed they were looking for drugs, too, since rarely does a knife or gun fit tigations and prosecutions — dangerous into a change pocket. Thiele had my ID, but he also wanted my Social Security number fallout when one considers how much so they could run a more comprehensive background check. All of this because I was justice relies on community support.

January 2017 26 DesertCompanion.vegas ILLUSTRATION brent holmes "What's important for (police) to understand is that body searches are legal, stopping people for jaywalking is legal, asking for consent is legal — but just because you can do something doesn't mean you always should."

In my four years as a Clark County departments throughout the U.S. are resident, my encounters with Metro now confronting decades-long tensions have been largely positive. But I’ll attest with minority communities fed up with to the frustration an unnecessary body what many deem to be unnecessarily search can inspire. I’d consented, but aggressive tactics. But Metro has been the experience still left me feeling angry, something of an outlier in this story, hav- embarrassed and confused. Adding to my ing already made great strides in curbing bemusement was the fact that I wasn’t its use of deadly force thanks in part to alone in my jaywalking spree; a blond Justice Department recommendations man in a blazer crossed the street right in 2012 for more rigorous training. next to me. The integrity of the process De-escalation exercises, “reality-based” is not elevated, either, when Thiele use-of-force scenarios, anti-bias classes mistakenly addressed me as “Mr. Cruz.” I and new systems of accountability, such had to remind him toward the end of the as body-worn cameras and civilian-led exchange that my name is Hernandez. oversight committees, have helped Officer Larry Hadfield, Metro’s spokes- make Metro the statistical envy of urban man, says every precinct uses different police forces around the nation. tactics, and patrols Downtown can be But in its approach to minor infrac- particularly rigorous due to the area’s tions, I’d argue that more (or, depending rough-and-tumble past. “It’s a part of mak- on how you look at it, less) work is due. ing proactive stops,” he says. “Downtown Our crime rate has gone up, which will has had issues historically with narcotics.” likely lead some to excuse intrusive It would seem counterintuitive that tactics. Yet while acknowledging that a person with drugs or a weapon would these facts might be unrelated, when consent to a body search, yet Hadfield New York reined in its use of stop-and- says “dumb” criminals allow them at frisk, the city’s homicide rate continued times. He adds that “if an officer asks a to decline, suggesting the method had citizen if they can conduct a search for little impact as a crime-stopping tool. contraband and that citizen consents, “What’s important for the depart- then that citizen has given consent.” ments to understand,” Harris told I presented this fact to Harris, who me, “is that body searches are legal, pointed out what I, and other Las Vegans stopping people for jaywalking is legal, I’ve spoken to, have felt. That these asking for consent is legal — but just requests “don’t always feel like requests.” because you can do something doesn’t Sean Breckling, 33, recounted a time in mean you always should. There should 2014 when he was stopped while riding be a reason you do stuff like that. It his bicycle on Pecos. The officer said the should have a direct connection to pub- street was “too dangerous” for cycling lic safety. It shouldn’t be all the time, despite signs advising motorists to share and it shouldn’t be random, allowing the road. There was a search request, your biases to kick in.” which Breckling denied. Then the officer After my background check cleared, allegedly said that if he didn’t allow his I received a $160 jaywalking ticket, bags to be searched, Breckling would and was then treated to a slew of wary have to wait one hour for a drug-sniffing glances as I entered the restaurant. dog to arrive. He then consented and My friends ordered burgers. I was too watched the investigation unfold while in wound up, so I asked for a small plate. handcuffs, only to learn later that holding Having overheard my story, our server him for one hour without probable cause brought me a free glass of Fernet — a would have been illegal. bitter, aromatic spirit for an event that It merits noting that urban police failed the police reform smell test.

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 27 profile

Small world From tiny buildings to big ideas, the miniature realities of architectural modelmakers Adam Throgmorton and Shawn Bicker by T.R. WITCHER

don’t see a difference between the model and reality,” says architectural modelmaker Adam Throgmorton in his home studio in November. To “I him, the only difference is scale; the reality of a model and its full-scale ana- log are exactly the same. If this sounds a bit romantic — the world view that you expect from a guy who’s been making pieces of the world in miniature his whole life — that’s because you haven’t spent time in Throgmorton’s Henderson studio. The studio could not be more prosaic: It’s his garage. But inside, you find yourself seeing the world as he does, where size or scale doesn’t deter- He and his partner, Shawn Model citizens: controlled by iPad. They Shawn Bicker, mine essence. Care and passion do. Bicker, have also done work then fashioned a convincing left, and Adam In this world, a model of a building or for clients as varied as Disney, Throgmorton have beach and oceanfront with place reflects reality and shapes it. “It Tesla and the Mob Museum. taken the art of a deft mix of resins, epoxy, translates, it educates. They don’t just For Disney, the pair designed model-making to a gelatins and paint. The Club show off a new design. They show them a small replica entry door — new scale. 33 doors feature tiny door- how to see a new thing,” Throgmorton front and back — to Disney- knobs and a faux mechani- says. The model is a way station between land’s fabled Club 33, a private restau- cal locking mechanism on a model that an idea and its built manifestation. Some rant and club. For Tesla, they designed measures just two inches across. On the models might show designers what it is two models of the carmaker’s enormous backside is a tiny metal table with creas- they are working with. Others can help Reno gigafactory. The first shows de- es in the resin tablecloth. The El Chapo sell a project. tails of the plant’s operation. The second model includes a tiny security camera “You can insult a project greatly if you shows the plant in the context of its sur- unable to observe Guzmán’s escape. produce a bad model,” he says. But a good roundings. A small portion of that model Throgmorton, 44, always had a knack model can make people believe and make is marked with a black rectangle, which for sweating the small stuff. As a kid investors open their checkbooks. “When denotes 1 million square feet. The mod- growing up in Florida near Disney World, people see it in a model, they believe it’s el gives the clearest idea of just how in- he loved seeing models like the ones of EP- going to happen in reality.” sanely large the gigafactory is. COT. He was frustrated he couldn’t get his Throgmorton’s firm, ModelWorksA- Most ingeniously, the designers mod- hands on them. So he started building his JT, has been building models for hotel eled an exhibit for the Mob Museum de- own out of paper and clay and metal. and resort clients in Las Vegas for more picting the 2015 prison escape of Mexican “I hated the models I was seeing at a than 20 years. Throgmorton has com- drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. time,” he says. “They were plasticky pleted models for Mandalay Bay, for Par- Throughout, the details are every- looking. They were flat looking. No di- is Las Vegas, for Luxor and Excalibur. In thing. For a giant resort in the Bahamas mensions as far as gradients of color, de- addition, he’s modeled office parks, casi- called Baha Mar, the pair illuminated tails. That’s why I got into it.” nos around the country and other retail their models with hundreds of capillary He began when he was about 12. For residential projects. fiber-optic lights, all of which could be six or seven years, he played around

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Small is beautiful: Clockwise from top, and dabbled in designing roller coast- models for Graton ers. “I didn’t see any that worked. Resort & Casino, Baha Mar resort, and I wanted to build something that Ritz-Carlton Club and worked. No plan to be a professional.” Residences But when he moved to Las Vegas to attend UNLV in the early nineties, he became friends with Andrew Pascal, Steve Wynn’s nephew. That chance encoun- ter led to Throgmorton getting hired by Wynn’s architect, the late Joel Bergman — who developed the tri-wing design that shaped a generation of Strip casinos — to do model work for Bellagio and Treasure Island. Just like that, Throgmorton’s hobby became a career. He was 18. “It proves that if you stay doing what you love, something will happen with that, if you do it well. Do what you do and do it well, and you can’t go wrong.” Throgmorton started his own model-making business in 1994. Bicker, meanwhile, had always been obsessed with what he calls “little worlds.” One of

January 2017 30 DesertCompanion.vegas  offers two GREAT dining options  www.stgeorgedowntown.com his favorite books as a kid was Beverly and big flying buttress-like supports. He Cleary’s 1965 novel The Mouse and the built the models up starting with the Motorcycle, about an adventure-seek- tracks, supported by foam. Then he adding mouse who learns to ride a human ed the wood around it. child’s toy motorcycle. “Even as a kid in “It’s moody,” he says. “It breathes.” In- the sandbox, I’d be cutting cardboard deed, on some runs, the coaster cars glide boxes up all the time, putting windows in along the rails. On others, they seem to them, making streets,” he says. Growing move a bit slower. But the little car, as it up, he built models and forts, and went on rhythmically “whooshes” along the track, to study exhibit design at Bemidji State actually does seem to breathe, in a way. University in Minnesota. Now 44, Bicker He finished the coaster several years worked as an exhibit designer in Las Ve- ago, but still wants to add a Victorian-era gas and around the country for 20 years. station house. And he’s looking for a He collaborated on the side with Throg- name. The High Roller? Taken. The Adam morton for several years before joining Smasher? Clever, but somehow not the him full-time a few years ago. Throgmor- right tenor. For this gargantuan coaster is ton says, “I thought I had it down. But not a brute. It’s a piece of majesty. Throg- (Shawn’s) knowledge of technology and morton purposefully did not attach a scale CAD programs has brought a level of mod- to it. Maybe 154 feet tall at its highest point Patio Dining el-building that I thought I had already hit. if you built it for real? That’s about as tall as It’s only plussed it many times over.” the Statue of Liberty replica at New York Their garage studio is a workshop of New York. As I watch the roller coaster small and precise implements: tiny rolls make its rounds again and again, asking, "Best Restaurant..." of tape, a panoply of specialty glues that with a child’s enthusiasm if I can see it go Painted Pony Restaurant can bind different materials; tiny brush- one more time, I’m hit with the reality of 2 W. St. George Blvd. #22 es about the size of a pen tip. Even the Throgmorton’s work. The model is real. St. George, Utah 84770 large laser cutter can etch and cut with It’s a reminder, too, of why we yearn for (435)634.1700 www.Painted-Pony.com the subtlety of a scalpel. the fantastic. The Strip is a fantasy made Casual Fine Dining | Contemporary American When you speak with modelmak- manifest. But reality already intrudes on ers, inevitably talk turns to the models that fantasy: traffic, long lines, expensive they dream of making. We talked about meals, assaulting noise, disorienting lay- World’s Fairs: the 1893 Columbian Ex- outs, long and endless hallways, a succes- position in Chicago, and especially the sion of the tacky and gaudy, underwritten 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in by a thousand corporate entities. St. Louis. “You can’t really imagine what The longer you live here, the more the it was like to walk through it anymore,” magic of the Strip is best preserved from says Throgmorton. “What better way a distance: the sky lobby at the Mandarin than to see a re-creation in miniature? Oriental, the High Roller, the 215, where I’d love to build a fully detailed accurate the cluster of hotels has a kind of Emerald representation of it.” City aura to it, a sense of the impossible. Closer to home, the pair have conceived But I find myself mesmerized more an equally audacious idea — to build a scale by Throgmorton’s ingenious dining historical model of the Las Vegas Strip as room roller coaster. We spend billions it was a generation or more ago. Imagine a trying to bring dreams to life, and it is model of the Strip in 1959 or 1969. admirable how well we have done here, Throgmorton doesn’t have anything in the most inhospitable of climates. But like that in his studio. But he might have the imagination doesn’t require quite so ‘ something better: a wooden roller coast- much infrastructure. E O R G E S er. There it sits in his dining room, an im- It’s a lesson app designers and casino G CORNER pressive structure of peaks and valleys. It planners and visual effects wizards and Restaurant & Pub operates like a real wooden roller coaster architects routinely forget. The poets tend — a chain lift carries a car up, and grav- to get it right. As does Throgmorton. Here, BREAKFAST || LU NC H || DINNER ity sends the car down and around and you watch the roller coaster go up, and OPEN 7 DAYS/WEEK through the imposing wooden structure. then gravity shoots it through the wooden 7 A..M.. - MIDNIGHT Throgmorton spent years, off and on, structure, and the room fades away, and George’s Corner Restaurant on it. He knew the basic design. He knew the thing really is alive. And, in that mo- 2 W. St. George Blvd. #1 he wanted big movement on both sides, ment of simple perfection, so are you. St. George, Utah 84770 (435) 216.7311 GeorgesCornerRestaurant.com “Best New Hot Spot” | Great American Food

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 31 culture Lunch mates: Emmanuel Ortega, left, and Justin Favela have inspired dialogue — and laughter — with their podcast.

wo days after the presidential trying to get people’s thoughts just so I election, Las Vegas artist Justin can figure out what I’m feeling.” The Making Favela is in his Downtown stu- president-elect’s inflammatory rhetoric dio, fielding calls from friends has half of the country on edge, and that T and family during a special edi- gives this episode, titled “Call Your tion of Latinos Who Lunch, a podcast he Raza,” a special focus. (Raza means their cohosts with his friend Emmanuel Or- race.) Cousin Celeste, the first caller, tega. Normally, he and Ortega are compares the hate in America’s divided lunching in the studio (the title is a take sociopolitical climate to drug addiction’s voices on the song “Ladies Who Lunch,” a nod rock-bottom moment — that is, a re- to the queer aspect of the show), but his quirement for getting better — to which cohost is out of town, and their laugh- Favela interjects: “We’ve hit rock bot- heard ter-infused discourse on pop culture, tom, now we have to go back to rehab.” art, family, world history and identity His brother Brandon, disappointed in On their podcast, Latinos Who politics is on hold, as is the audible himself for not voting, says he wants to Lunch, Justin Favela and chewing and bilingual banter. learn about the electoral college, and is Emmanuel Ortega mix food, pop “We usually come out every other in step with the assertion by other guests culture and identity politics into week, but with all the events happening that calm and civility is the appropriate a defiantly brown voice for the right now, we thought we need to get response to the election of a candidate this out,” Favela tells listeners somewhat who famously made harsh comments Trump era By Kristen Peterson solemnly. “I’m calling a bunch of people, about race, particularly regarding Mexi-

January 2017 32 DesertCompanion.vegas photography Krystal Ramirez What’s Your Idea? can immigrants, maligning them as “rapists” and “killers.” Nobody wants to feed into Trump supporters’ expecta- Inspiring Young tions of them. Eventually, Ortega calls in from Albu- Entrepreneurs querque, where he’s finishing his PhD in and Creators Ibero-American colonial art history, and laments the “display of white supremacy in comfortable shoes.” NOW ENROLLING! Student-inspired curriculum “The hoods are off,” Favela says. “It’s that ignites passions and empowers students showtime for a lot of people.” Later, he adds, “We need to make sure our pres- to pursue ideas, no matter how small or wild. ence is known.” Brown power Attend An Open House eginning with the first episode, re- corded in Ortega’s home on bor- Early Childhood th B rowed equipment, presence has Wednesday, January 25 at 4 pm been the thrust of Latinos Who Lunch. In Elementary more than 20 episodes, Favela (aka “Fa- th vyFav”) and Ortega (“Babelito”) have Thursday, January 26 at 4 pm championed brown podcasts and amassed a multicultural following, as well as nods from Latino podcasts. Contact us at 702.724.1436 or visit 9thBridgeSchool.org to learn more! They’ve broken-heartedly mourned the 310 S. 9th Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101 | [email protected] death of flamboyant Mexican singer Juan Gabriel, critiqued Frida Kahlo’s main- stream popularity, deconstructed the Olympic ceremonies in Brazil, discussed the white male privilege of land art, talked about the problem with Hamilton and delved into the complexities of identity and culture. Episodes begin with food, some chewing and a note about what they’re eating: huevos from a Cen- tral-American restaurant, Mediterranean tacos, turkey sandwiches, pizza or are- pas. So casual is the show’s vibe that the crinkling of bags and food wrappers is audible. Long pauses and sighs are not edited out. The show is designed to reflect the realness of the conversation between the two friends, and they want to keep it genuine, calling each other “gurlll” as they bounce between intellectual discourse, giggles and occasional ribbing, sometimes fumbling with the recording equipment and wondering if the show’s actually being taped. Guests and callers often come from within their own circles, and conversations might end on a personal note — “I love you” or “Say hi to Mom.” As queer male Latinos, well-versed in media, art history and divergent ele- ments within different Latino communities, they are, as one listener put it, adding “brown to the sea of very beige

january 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 33 Culture

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NEVADA podcasts.” A review on iTunes called it, out during the “Call Your Raza” episode, PUBLIC RADIO “Smart, witty. Everything my Mexican- “You can’t be the crazy brown person. American self always wanted.” You can’t be the crazy black person, be- Exclusive offer “We are doing this podcast for us and cause no one listens to you. But you can for people like us,” Favela says, sitting be the crazy white person and be elected WANT A COOL NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO next to Ortega in his Downtown studio a president.” The frustration of that logic PINT GLASS TO ENJOY week and a half before the election. An pours through at times during the show, YOUR BIG DOG’S BREW? artist-in-residence studio at Juhl, it’s a which is one of hundreds linked to on Become a member today spacious, high-ceilinged storefront cov- podcastsofcolor.com. The show has and receive our exclusive limited edition pint glass only available at ered in piñata-inspired artworks, some made it onto Latino USA’s list of pod- nevadapublicradio.org/support of which are headed to the Denver Art casts to listen to right now, and in Sep- Museum, where Favela will be featured tember, Latinos Who Lunch was Google in a February exhibit. Play’s podcast of the week. According to “There are a lot of white people, a lot Audio Boom, their shows have had of my white friends, who listen to the 18,000 listens. Favela says the podcast show and love it because they say they averages 1,000 downloads a week on Au- NOW AVAILABLE learned a lot, or they didn’t realize cer- dio Boom and iTunes. He and Ortega ad- AT BIG DOG’S DRAFT HOUSE, tain things, and that’s really awesome. vocate for other “brown podcasts,” link- But when Babelito and I started thinking to their favorites, interviewing other 4543 N. RANCHO DR., LAS VEGAS. ing about the show, we thought, We’re hosts and even collaborating with pod- VISIT NEVADAPUBLICRADIO.ORG/BEER not going to cater to white people, be- casts such as Super Mamas and Tamarin- TO FIND ADDITIONAL RETAIL LOCATIONS NEAR YOU. cause everything is for white people. If do Podcast in Southern California. we focus on making something for us, “We’re connecting with other pod- for people who sound like us, for people casts around the United States, and who look like us, talk like us and smell we’re pushing each other to become bet- like us (laughs), eat like us, people are ter, for our voices to encourage other going to be able to relate to it. I’ve lived voices to become part of the conversa- my whole life having to code-switch tion,” Ortega says. “What we’re trying to and to put on a filter so that white peo- do is encourage this conversation out- ple aren’t uncomfortable. Now it’s my side of this medium.” turn to be comfortable, and it’s okay if white people don’t relate.” Filling in the blanks “The podcast at least interrupts peo- he two met at The Cosmopolitan’s ple’s thinking for one day,” Ortega adds. Liberace exhibit, where Favela was It also serves as a reminder of para- T gallery manager. Ortega, an academ-

doxical race logic, as when Favela points ic who doesn’t like to call himself an ac- l a fave justin courtesy photo

January 2017 34 DesertCompanion.vegas NEVADA BALLET THEATRE PRESENTS

ademic, is California-born, his family moving to Las Vegas from El Paso and re- siding in Juarez before that. Favela, a Las Vegas native and local history enthusiast, received his BFA from UNLV. He was the only Nevada artist represented in last year’s prestigious State of the Art exhibit hosted by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and was one of 17 Southern Nevada artists featured in Tilting the Basin, a show of Silver State artists compiled by the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno. Theirs is an engaging matchup. Orte- ga is more comfortable speaking Spanish and Favela with speaking English. When the podcast launched seven months ago, both were already consuming podcasts by people of color. “We have been hooked on black podcasts for a while, and we wanted to hear that in our community.” The two are filling in the blanks of an American story in real time, or, rather, squeezing in notations where there had been no room for them: “In this country, they never teach us Latino history,” Favela says. “They teach us black history because you can’t ignore the fact there were slaves here. You can ignore the fact that they lynched thousands of Mexi- cans after the Great Depression because they didn’t need us anymore. They don’t teach us that in history class.” In an episode about the Life Is Beau- tiful music festival, where Favela turned the entire front of a Downtown motel into a pink piñata, the artist explains that the project used Mexican symbolism to create visibility for Lati- nos in Las Vegas: “There are so many brown people working behind the scenes, making the city run. Construc- tion, cleaning. A lot of my family built February 25 & 26, 2017 the casinos that are up. And we’re not part of history. Nobody’s talking about (702) 749-2000 • NevadaBallet.org us. So making a building that’s covered in a piñata — that’s visibility.” But issues concerning all people of With Live Orchestra color are addressed unabashedly. An Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky example: In the same episode, Favela reports that some white people wore Choreography after Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa Native-American headdresses to Life Staged by Cynthia Gregory Is Beautiful (there were also whites in dashikis and Afro wigs). He began SPONSORED BY: THE PLASTER FAMILY AND MADELEINE & DON ANDRESS filming them, asking if they knew that IN HONOR OF WENDY PLASTER what they were wearing was offensive a l a fave justin courtesy photo to some people. LIVE MUSIC SPONSOR: DORIS & TED LEE

Photo by Jerry Metellus

january 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 35 Culture

“Why don’t you put on a bonnet if you tions, amid other meanings — takes on a ment of cultural stereotypes, even by want to represent your own f--king cul- chola “workout video” that features a co- someone within the culture. ture,” he says. median exercising in his backyard, an “Let’s get to the point,” Favela says “All these appropriations, it’s disgust- offense — it seemed to be a mocking ste- in the episode. “We’re recording this ing,” Ortega adds. reotype — that resulted in the hosts in- podcast after I saw some really f--ked- They’re not just critical of white peo- viting Favela’s tia Jessica, aka Cha Cha up shit on Facebook, just to be honest. ple. The episode “Cholosploitation Na- de Chola Pinup (her name as a member … I watched like 30 seconds of it, and I tion” — chola is a complex cultural term of the nonprofit organization Chola Pin- just had to turn it off. But people tag that sometimes indicates gang affilia- up) into the studio to discuss the treat- me in these videos because hey they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re Latino, don’t you think this is funny?’” “Cholosploitation Nation” quickly becomes a fascinating podcast, with tia Jessica, who grew up in the ’hood where Start Early. Favela also grew up. She shares her personal history of being chola and discuss- es the evolution of the cholo culture from Start Right. that of violent gang reputation a few decades ago to one of community, family and advancement: “Now we’ve grown Challenger School offers uniquely fun up. We want to be positive in our com- and academic classes for preschool to munity and give back.” In reference to eighth grade students. her mother, who is now a college stu- Our students learn to think for dent, Jessica says, “You can’t spell schol- themselves and to value independence. ar without ‘chola.’”

The results are unmatched at any price! ‘I felt like I knew these guys’ Come see for yourself at ome of the episodes, much like an Open House! Favela and Ortega themselves, are S smart, sincere, casual and blunt. Saturday, January 7, 9–1 “There are certain things that we’re try- Wednesday, January 11, 8–5 ing to open the dialogue for in the pod- Wednesday, January 18, 8–5 cast, and there’s a lot of things we’re try- Saturday, January 21, 9–1 ing to do,” Ortega says. “We’re not going Tuesday, January 24, 8–5 to be careful with what we say to each other, because I’m having a conversation Open Enrollment with Justin in the podcast, and that’s it.” Begins January 17! That is a big part of the appeal of Lati- nos Who Lunch, says Luis Octavio, who operates the L.A.-based Tamarindo Pod- cast with Brenda Gonzalez and says he loves the mutual support and praise of brown podcasts by other brown podcasts. “The moment they started talking, I felt like I knew these guys. I felt like they were my friends. They were so re- latable. I just felt like they were talking to me.” Octavio, who has worked in media, An independent private school offering preschool through eighth grade says big corporations put out content for the Latino community that’s very for- Desert Hills 410-7225 Los Prados 839-1900 mal, news-oriented and on the straight 8175 West Badura Ave. 5150 N. Jones Blvd. and narrow, while other outlets put out jokes and nonsense. Latinos Who Lunch Green Valley 990-7300 Summerlin 878-6418 is different, he says. “They deliver im- 1725 East Serene Ave. 9900 Isaac Newton Way portant information. They educate the Inspiring Children to Achieve Since 1963 listener in a fun and engaging way.” © 2016, Challenger Schools. Challenger School admits students of any race, color, and national or ethnic origin.

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Providing expert reproductive care in Southern Nevada. On the air, they humbly mention being approached by fans and note humorously Learn more about how you that the fan mail coming in is no longer can support your local just from their friends. Their negative Planned Parenthood. comments about white people, they say, are presented within specific contexts and are not blanket statements about all white Purpose • Community • Reproductive Rights • people. “I’m not racist. I have three white Resilience • Commitment friends,” Favela says with a laugh. But be- neath the sarcasm is a serious intent and the desire to share their slice of reality. “The reason that we’re doing it is because Favy and I have been having these conversations for two years, and we sit down in a coffee shop and talk, and we’re both so stimulated about what we’re talking about,” he says. “Finally, we’re like, We got to record this shit. We got to record these things, and sometimes I don’t think about who’s listening. Some- times I forget that we’re recording.” GiVE US YOUr To those shocked by the election results, Ortega, in “Call Your Raza,” reminds listeners that America is not living in a post-racial society just because it BEST SHOT! elected a black president: “This is prov- ing everything we’ve been talking about, and people have not been listening and paying attention.” During “Call Your Raza,” while the two discuss how to respond to the election of Trump, their conversation is interrupted by a call from podcaster Juanita Monsalve, from the show Choices & Chismes. “I was literally on the phone with Ba- $4,000 belito,” he tells her on the air. OVER Es “Oh, that punk,” she says warmly. Riz Favela introduces Monsalve to listen- al p ER a in T OT ers and says, “I told Juanita to call me provided by B & C C a m today because I wanted her voice on our podcast because it’s such an amazing show that they have, and I really want to know what’s on Juanita’s mind.” Her take: “This is real,” she says, talking about the way that “this random man” rallied people together under the umbrella of racism, adding, “A lot of peo- Submissions deadline ple need us to be there,” for podcasters to come together, create community and april 10 protect one another. After which Favela tells listeners, “If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, now is the time to do it. Stop messing around. Go get some cheap mics. We need more brown voices out there. We For full guidelines, contest rules need to be heard.” and prizes, visit desertcompanion.vegas

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The Dish 42 01 cocktail of 17 the month 45

Eat this now 45

block party 46 Our city's best spots to eat & drink

Mediterranean mix: Hummus Factory's falafel is served with lots of pickled vegetables.

January 2017 Photography By sabin orr DesertCompanion.vegas 41 Dining out

Factory work: Top right, frarej, or baked chicken; below, chicken kabob; far right, the Greek burger

learned consistency from my grandmother, and I learned to perfect things from my Uncle The Dish Frank,” says Tony Tabet, owner “I and chef at The Hummus Facto- ry, a Mediterranean fusion restaurant that opened last spring. For Tabet, restaurants Starting are a family tradition with roots reaching back to Lebanon. His grandparents Antoine and Leila Hedary opened their first restau- from scratch rant in Beirut. When they left Lebanon during the country’s civil war, they brought At Tony Tabet’s Hummus Factory, the secret sauce is a spirit their cuisine to Fort Worth, Texas, opening of playful invention (and a good dose of spice) By Misti Yang namesake restaurant Hedary’s in 1976. Un- cle Frank imported Hedary’s to Las Vegas in 2003, and Tabet’s aunt owns Khoury’s,

January 2017 42 DesertCompanion.vegas Photography Sabin Orr JOIN US FOR “I took the good from every restaurant,” says Tabet. HAPPY

stainless shelf, and racing bolts secure HOUR some fixtures in the kitchen. When an oven malfunctions, Tabet has no problem PLATES & POURS STARTING AT $3.95 whipping out a multimeter to diagnose MONDAY-FRIDAY 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM the problem. He even built his own brick oven to bake his pita bread. (He boasts that it only cost him 50 bucks.) Put it all together, and the end product is an indus- trial, modern design, complemented by background music he personally curates from SoundCloud. “I am really against having traditional music. The food I want traditional, but I want a different vibe,” he says. On a recent visit, the electronic duo Odesza’s “Say My Name” serenaded customers enjoying falafel and creamy hummus, and it felt right for a type of cuisine that might be called Lebanese 3.0.

Bright ideas, bright flavors Tivoli Village | 702.433.1233 | BrioItalian.com What about Lebanese 1.0? What is traditional Lebanese cuisine? “It’s kind of another Vegas Mediterranean staple. Tabet like Greek food,” says Tabet. An apt de- cooked with all of them, venturing out on scription, as Lebanon has been a culinary his own with a food truck in 2012. “I took crossroads throughout a history ruled by the good from every restaurant,” he says. the Ottoman Empire for a period and by But Tabet hopes to do more than contin- the French following World War I. Despite ue a legacy. He doesn’t want to merely build the French influence, Lebanese food does off the family name. He sees the Hummus not rely on heavy sauces, but instead fea- Factory as a unique creation that quite lit- tures olive oil, bright herbs such as mint erally came from his own two hands. and parsley and plenty of vegetables. We’re not just talking about the food. The Tabet honors the role of fresh herbs in bones of the restaurant itself are a product Lebanese dishes by growing mint in front of a hands-on genealogical investigation. of the restaurant and by drying all of his For instance, after he settled on a location, own herbs in-house. Mezza, a selection of Tabet rented a truck, drove to Texas, and small plates and salads, is perhaps the best went picking for restaurant furniture in way to experience the breadth of flavors family barns. (Other family members, not created by using fresh herbs. The Hummus just his grandparents, had owned restau- Factory offers an order of six or 12. rants and kept furniture and other items in Other traditional dishes include frarej Table 34 storage.) He painted old chairs and cleaned and falafel. Frarej is baked chicken, and Featuring Chef Wes Kendricks’ up tables. “People laughed at what I had in Tabet serves his grandfather’s 64-year-old contemporary American cuisine includ- the truck — cobwebs and junk — but I did recipe. The recipe is legendary. (A Goo- ing safe harbor certified fresh fish, it,” he says. “I built this restaurant by myself gle search for frarej suggests an alternate wild game, duck, lamb, angus beef, for two months.” search of “Hedary’s chicken recipe.”) and comfort food classics. Conve- Technical skills and know- “That’s all they would sell in niently located off the 215 and Warm how gained at automotive Hummus the beginning,” he says, refer- Springs. Dinner Tuesday - Saturday school helped. New pipe Factory ring to the earliest days of He- 5pm until closing (around 10pm) 7875 W. Sahara typically used for a diesel dary’s in Texas. The half-chick- Ave. #101 600 E. Warm Springs Road exhaust system holds up a en is basted in olive oil, garlic 702-675-6020 Las Vegas, NV (702) 263-0034 hummusfactorylv. com

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 43 Dining out

and lemon juice and served with potatoes and tomatoes. Unlike some falafel that consist of garbanzos alone, Tabet creates his deep-fried bean balls from garbanzo and fava beans and serves them in a bowl filled with fresh raw vegetables and homemade pickles. With a side of hot, pillowy pita, the dish offers enough to create several sandwiches topped with tahini.

A flair for fusion Still, The Hummus Factory’s subti- tle is “Mediterranean fusion,” so it’s not all tried-and-true Lebanese fare. Take Tabet’s self-proclaimed signature dish: the Greek burger. Lebanese cuisine does not feature many beef dishes, but when Tabet started with the food truck, he knew the perfect burger was a necessity. Today, his menu features grass-fed patties. The Greek burger is topped with spinach, feta cheese and crispy onions. On the side, you can substi- tute zucchini or eggplant fries for a few more dollars. Another twist that Tabet offers to Leba- nese is heat — as in peppers. On any given day, the specials board may feature a new, red-hot dish, but Tabet’s signature creations, jalapeño and ghost pepper hummus, are always on the menu. (Of the ghost pepper, the menu warns: “The Hummus Fac- tory is not responsible for any health issues that may arise from consuming this item.”) If you just want the heat without the hummus, you can get the sauces on the side. For more twists, the menu also features pizzas made on pita bread and a dollop of kimchi added to falafel sandwiches. With such a spirit of inventive fusion, it’s no surprise he’s busy building another Hummus Fac- tory food truck to debut this year. “My mother and father are kind of against what I am doing. They say, ‘You’re messing with the culture,’” he says. But when Tabet opened The Hummus Facto- ry last spring, the Fort Worth Hedary’s Facebook page announced like a proud grandma: “Tony Tabet, grandson of An- toine and Leila Hedary, makes the move from food truck to restaurant.” Tradition can be both a foundation to build upon and a maze to navigate. At The Hummus Factory, Tabet proves that the struggle can prove fruitful — and delicious.

January 2017 44 DesertCompanion.vegas eat this when? Eat this now! Pork Pepito From Pepito Shack 1516 Las Vegas Blvd. S. #A, pepitoshack.com

It says “World Famous” Pepito Shack on the sign, so I Skyped Ulaanbaatar, capital of far-off Mongolia, and asked, “Hey, bro, you ever heard of the Pepito Shack?” And the guy was all, “Yes! Everyone here has. It's world famous. Dude” — I translat- ed this myself, so some nuances might be slightly off — “you totally gotta try the pork pepito. (Pepito is a kind of open-faced sandwich served in South America.) The shredded pork is tender, cooked over mesquite and nicely seasoned, and the coleslaw and crispy potato strings stage a texture get-down on your tongue. Great street food. We talk about it all the time.” Perhaps you are skeptical of this account — would a random, real-life Mongolian gentleman really use a phrase like “texture get-down on your tongue”? Well, my friends, we live in a post-fact world now, in which fake food reviews are the new real food reviews, so all you need to know is that our (trust us!) entirely legit Mongolian source is spot-on about the pork pepito. It’s tasty. Scott Dickensheets

Cocktail The Noble Irishman at Elixir of the Elixir is hidden atop a curlicue of asphalt that swirls off month of Green Valley Parkway, in a nondescript office/retail cube that looks more suited to CPA firms and law prac- opher S mi t h t tices. (You even have to take an elevator.) It’s worth the hide-and-seek session, though: The sparkly bar-restaurant’s ambitious menu and cocktail list suggest hidden-gem status. My favorite: The Noble Irishman. It’s a Moscow Mule with whiskey instead of ail: C hris t vodka, plus maple syrup to play off the earth and spice of the Jameson. The martini glass seems like a fussy touch, but the ginger beer does give The Noble Irishman a festive bite. And while the holidays are behind us, I’m o: bren t holmes; cock certainly not done celebrat- ing. Andrew Kiraly 2920 N. Green Valley Parkway,

pork pepi t 702-272-0000, elixirlounge.net

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 45 Dining out

hen it comes to the local Las Vegas dining scene, it’s easy to look to histor - ic Downtown, Downtown W Summerlin and even Green Valley as restaurant hot spots. But, on a rather nondescript strip mall stretch of South Durango across from Desert Breeze Park, quite the collection of eat- eries has come into its own. To discover some new gems and rediscover some mainstays, let’s head from north to south on an edible suburban itinerary.

La Maison du Maggie In perhaps the most Gallic crêperie in the valley, the actual Maggie serves the beloved thin pancakes in her namesake nook. Go for the most authen- tic of them all, the “France” galette. It’s made with nutty buckwheat flour and is filled with ham, cheese and a fried egg, just like it’s done back in Normandy. block party (3455 S. Durango Drive #112, 702-823- 4466, lamaisondemaggie.com) Durango Paiz Latin Foods If you don’t want any animales in your tacos, you can grab a few vegan tor- tillas filled with veggies such as mush- unchained rooms, zucchini and deep-fried avocado This southern stretch of an otherwise standard street reveals at this Mexican shop. (3655 S. Durango flavors from all around By Greg Thilmont Drive #27, 702-426-0821, facebook.com/ PaizLatinandVeganFood)

January 2017 46 DesertCompanion.vegas Photography brent Holmes Durangolicious: From left, pizza from Amore, "France" galette from La Maison du Maggie, sushi from Scoops Naked Fish While gelato and shaved ice might seem to have taken the town biggest flavors. Owner/chef Anthony Zap- December. It has great greasy-spoon of- over, there’s still plenty of good ol’ Amer- pola’s two-table Rice Shop specializes in, ferings, including a from-scratch eggs ican ice cream about, like at tiny Scoops. of course, bowls of steamed grain topped Benedict and a satisfying lox scramble. Featuring the familiar Thrifty label of fro- with savory delights like Korean beef and (3945 S. Durango Drive, 702-431-3447, zen treats, you can get your bubblegum fla- Kentucky fried fish. With a pedigree that facebook.com/normseggscafe) vor on up in here. (3655 S. Durango Drive includes Heritage Steak at the Mirage, he #19, 702-463-8599, thriftyslasvegas.com) even makes his own pickled vegetables, Naked Fish’s which, like everything else here, taste ex- Sushi & Grill TC’s Rib Crib traordinary. (3655 S. Durango Drive #9, Naked Fish’s is one of those old- One of the most venerable 'cue 702-889-0468, riceshopvegas.com) guard (for Vegas) places that’s been joints in town, TC’s serves Louisiana-style around for more than a decade, but pork in abundance. There’s also fried cat- Other Mama doesn’t really get spoken or written fish on Fridays, and daily inexpensive While less than two years old, about much anymore. But it’s still quite deals on “sammies,” including beef bris- Other Mama has made big waves in worthy. Beside raw denizens of the deep, ket and pulled chicken. (3655 S. Durango Southern Nevada’s epicurean scene. try rustic Japanese maki rolls filled with Drive #18, 702-451-7427 tcsbbqcrib.com) Owner/chef Dan Krohmer spent two relatively uncommon gobo (burdock years in a culinary dojo in rural Japan root) or natto (fermented soybeans). Zaytoon Market & perfecting his craft, and the restaurant’s (3945 S. Durango Drive #A6, 702-228- Restaurant seafood-centric menu is the result. Sea- 8856, vegasnakedfish.com) The finest Persian cuisine around sonal specials like grilled octopus with can be had at friendly Zaytoon, which, of aji amarillo and black beans are standout, Amore Taste of Chicago course, has a menu replete with varieties of and the happy hour oyster service is a true Expats from the City of Big Shoul- kabobs, from chicken and beef to lamb and, score. The bar creates top-notch mixolo- ders — and the people who love them — yes, sturgeon. The saffron-scented rice is gy, too. The entire package is as good as surely hold Amore dear for dining. Big, amazing, and the lavash bread is addictive. any casual dining destination you can find big dining. In the miracle Year of the Wash it down with a green tarragon soda. on the Strip. (3655 S. Durango Drive #6, Cubs, you can satisfy your Upper Mid- (3655 S. Durango Drive #11-14, 702-685- 702-463-8382, othermamalv.com) western cravings for deep-dish pizza, 1875, zaytoonlasvegas.com) beef sandwiches, and pasta with pep- Norm’s Cafe pers, in view of many sports-filled HD The Rice Shop For a handful of years, Norm’s was screens. Sports are definitely big here, What’s likely the most microscopic located in the same plaza as Other Mama, too. (3945 S. Durango Drive, 702-562- eatery in Las Vegas proffers some of the but moved a block to the south in early 9000, amoretasteofchicago.com)

January 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 47

IN THE Spending time with Las Vegans who are likely to see their lives reshaped by the incoming administration, our writer finds that the dawn of the Trump era is creating new fears for some and revived opportunities for others. FACE OF BY HEIDI KYSER UNCERTAINTY

JANUARY 2017 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS 49 living room, and the breakfast nook off the kitchen where the adults are gathered. “What school do you go to?” I ask, on the boy’s next go-round. He grabs the edge of the table with both hands, puts his chin on it, and stares at me silently. His mom urges in Spanish, “She’s asking what school you go to.” It’s not the language that escapes him — he speaks flawless American English, just like both his brothers — but the name of his school. Solution? Run back to the TV. We adults resume. I’m getting the story of something that happened a few days before the presidential election. A new client had called Luis’ dad, a home-repair contractor who specializes in HVAC work, for a ceiling fan installation. While Luis’ dad, perched on a ladder, fiddled with the fan, the client came in the room. Referring to the contractor’s heavy Spanish accent, the client inquired whether he had a green card. Yes, Luis’ dad IMMIGRATION replied, lying. Good, the client said, seizing the opening to com- plain about undocumented immigrants coming into the country and stealing American jobs. Luis’ dad offered a defense: Actually, most of the jobs that immigrants take can’t be filled Luis Montanez by American citizens. After a bit of back-and-forth on this, he asked if the client would prefer that an American complete the It’s around the time that Luis Montanez’s mom, who doesn’t ceiling fan job. The client said, “No, you go ahead,” and left the want me to use her name, is brewing chamomile tea and cutting room. Later, his wife, a native Spanish speaker herself, came in dense slices of pumpkin cake that I feel a surprising pinch in and apologized for her husband’s behavior. Overcome by con- the pit of my stomach. Paranoid thoughts race through my head: science, Luis’ dad confessed to her that he didn’t really have a What if they get in trouble because of me? What if ICE asks for my green card, but had said he did out of fear of being reported to notes? What am I doing here? immigration officials. She told him it was okay. I swallow the vague, fleeting fear — a tiny taste of what Luis, “Is that fear new?” I ask. a 20-year-old Dreamer at Nevada State College, and his undocu- Yes, Luis and his parents concur. Before this year, they felt mented immigrant parents endure many times a day in the new more secure. They’ve worked hard, paid taxes, minded their Ps world order of Brexit and “border walls.” To me, the feeling seems and Qs and kept their heads down. In 2013, Luis went through out of place in this Norman Rockwell scene: A middle-class fam- an extensive application process, including a police background ily has opened its home to a reporter writing a story about the check, to qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or eldest son’s achievements, which include graduating third in his DACA. Until recently, none of them worried that they’d be tar- class at Durango High School and working toward a double BA in gets of legal action. Then came Trump, who, Luis believes, ef- business and English, with an eye on law school. fectively channeled conservatives’ top concerns — the economy I’ve been chatting with them for more than an hour, holding and national security — into the single issue of immigration (de- their Yorkshire terrier, Jordy, on my lap and tossing an occa- spite unemployment going down 3.5 percent, median household sional question to Luis’ 6-year-old brother during his relays be- incomes going up 2 percent, and 9 percent fewer unauthorized tween the TV, tucked behind an outsized Christmas tree in the immigrants entering the country compared to 2009). Now, a

JANUARY 2017 I50 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS looming vulnerability permeates the family’s daily life. lim sentiment. But then Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency Still, they’re eager to share their story. They tell me how they and Republicans took majorities in both the House and Sen- came to the U.S. from Mexico on a tourist visa 17 years ago, ate. Citizens of all political stripes experienced a seismic shift landing in California, bouncing back and forth a couple times in their world views. Conservative policy proposals that were between there and their home country before settling in Las Ve- floated during the campaign — defunding Planned Parenthood, gas. Luis’ dad used his electrician training to find steady work repealing DACA and Obamacare, starting a Muslim registry — with a home-repair company. After a couple years, he opened suddenly went from unlikely to probable. These new circum- his own business, an LLC. He does all the HVAC work himself stances demand our attention. and subcontracts anything else. So, here I am, at Luis’ house, struggling to understand what He stresses that he doesn’t intentionally undercut American it’s like when nearly half the people who showed up to vote in companies when bidding on projects. Luis’ mom adds that she the most recent election apparently want to kick you out of the and her husband have always provided for their family, never country. My visit caps two weeks spent haunting a Yucca Moun- taking a handout, despite the hardship of raising three boys tain consultant, Planned Parenthood worker, antiregulation with no health insurance. Looking around their comfortable, neurosurgeon and head scarf-wearing Muslim woman. Based modest home, I imagine how offended they must be by the alt- on what I’ve observed, I’d say Luis’ remark best captures the right’s portrayal of Mexican immigrants as ignorant criminals. prevailing sentiment of many locals facing an unexpected real- I ask what their options are and am immediately reminded of ity: We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re preparing the time many years ago when, in a moment of absent-minded for the worst — or the best, depending on how you see it. small talk, I asked a Chinese businessman how many children he had. Cringing, I wait for the obvious answer as Luis blinks at me incredulously. “Well, as far as we know, we don’t have any,” he says. “Right YUCCA MOUNTAIN now, we’re just … in a state of uncertainty.” Immigration wasn’t supposed to be the subject of Desert Companion’s January cover story; nor were nuclear waste storage, reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act or anti-Mus- Robert List

Settling into an armchair in Sambalatte’s loft, Robert List tells me to call him “Bob.” Further exercising his political charm, Nevada’s 24th governor recalls our meeting at a Public Utilities Commission hearing last spring, where he’d gone to show support for rooftop solar. Old-school nuclear energy opponents find it hypo- critical that the state’s highest-profile supporter of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository jumped on the solar bandwagon, but to List, it makes perfect sense. “We’re a nation today that needs multiple sources of energy,” he says. “I’m in favor of wind and solar and geothermal.” What’s more, he lumps nuclear energy in with re- newables as “clean,” since it produces no greenhouse gases — so, doesn’t contribute to global warming — and can be developed domestically due to the abundance of uranium in the U.S. As controversial as this stance might seem, it pales in comparison to the pro- and anti-Yucca Mountain polemics in which List and others have engaged for 30 years. The plan to bury the country’s nuclear waste Sin a mountain two hours northwest of Las Vegas has languished in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, blocked from coming to fruition by U.S. Senator Harry Reid. The senator’s political strong-arming has infuri- ated the project’s supporters, who see it as a boon for Nevada. Meanwhile, grassroots opposition morphed into an effective advocacy and awareness campaign, keeping public support of Yucca Mountain low and concerns about it high. In 1998, the state agency for nuclear projects reported that more than two-thirds of Nevadans had consistently opposed the project in 20 years worth of polls; by 2007, a Reno Gazette-Journal poll found, that percentage had risen to three-quarters.

JANUARY 2017 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS 51 But List was among a handful of true believers who never He emphasizes that he would never encourage the state to adopt gave up hope. a plan that he isn’t convinced is safe for citizens, and that he’s anx- “I’ve felt for decades that sooner or later this project was ious to see such issues addressed in the NRC hearings. But if it is probably going to happen,” he says. “That’s because we’re a proven safe, he says, Nevada is looking at “billions and billions” in small state, and we don’t have a lot of power compared to the potential economic impact, including thousands of jobs. big states where all this (spent) fuel is sitting. … Many of us felt And there’s one other thing: “This site is 90 miles from Las that, once Senator Reid retired and was no longer in a position Vegas, in the middle of the desert, next to an Air Force base, to single-handedly kill the budget, it was going to come back to 1,000 feet underground, 1,000 feet above the water table,” he the stage where the proceedings would go forward in the NRC, says. “You’re not going to find a safer place, you know.” where the science will be completely analyzed and the final de- He might have some convincing to do on this point. At press cision made.” time Nevada’s official position, as published on Attorney General That day might have come, and sooner than List thought. Like Adam Laxalt’s website, is as follows: “Yucca Mountain is a singu- many people, based on polls overwhelmingly favoring Hillary larly bad site to house the nation’s high-level nuclear waste and Clinton in the race against Donald Trump, List didn’t expect his spent nuclear fuel for several reasons,” including geology, loca- Republican party to come out on top. But it did, at least nationally. tion, limited space, transportation and national security. And that, coupled with Reid’s coincidental retirement, breathed life back into the zombie plan. “Trump Advisers Eye Reviving Nevada Yucca Nuclear Waste Dump,” Bloomberg News wrote on November 14. The Congressional Budget Office called List and HEALTHCARE other attorneys who had represented Yucca Mountain’s stake- holders, he says, asking them to ballpark the amount of money they would need to get the project’s infrastructure going. I ask List whether Reid’s coup de grâce — getting President William Smith Obama to create the Basin and Range National Monument, putting land that a Yucca Mountain rail line was supposed to Shadowing neurosurgeon William Smith while on assignment traverse off limits — wouldn’t be enough to kill it for good. He four years ago still ranks in my 10 most enthralling experienc- says no, that the plans also included two other transportation es as a journalist. Within minutes of my arrival at UMC, Smith options: a second rail line through Hawthorne, Nevada, and a had me scrubbed and standing next to him in the OR. Over the highway route. following five hours, I attended six surgeries (including one Which leads to this exchange: emergency), accepting his invitation to peer inside open body cavities, study human brains being projected on a video screen Me: It doesn’t scare you, the idea of having a truck with nu- from a scope up someone’s nose and many other things I swore clear waste in it driving along a public highway? in a waiver that I would never write about. Bob: Not at all. Not at all. They already do this all over the At that time, EMR — shorthand for electronic medical re- world. cords — was the buzz in healthcare circles. Doctors’ offices Me: Even though there are other spills on highways all the were scrambling to comply with regulations requiring them to time — chemical spills, milk spills? adopt software that allowed various parties access to patient Bob: Those are far more dangerous. I mean, chlorine on the information, and Smith was annoyed by the imposition, which rail lines is hugely dangerous. he predicted would increase the burden on healthcare provid- Me: Probably not more than nuclear waste, though. ers without actually improving the quality of care. Given Re- Bob: Yes, it is, because the nuclear waste is packaged in these publicans’ current promise to repeal Obamacare, I wondered if impenetrable containers. And they’ve been tested. I’ve seen vid- Smith would be happy to see what many doctors consider an- eos of the tests. They’re so heavily encased that they can take a other onerous government program on its way out. So I met him full-blown train running into the side of them, and they won’t for coffee to find out. burst. … There have been so many misconceptions about the “I believe the bureaucrats have won the war in medicine,” he material. I mean, it’s not liquid. It’s in the form of little pellets. says, right off the bat. And what you’d have to do if somehow there were ever a spill, He explains that every week he gets another new form he has is go out and pick it up and put it back in the container. It’s not to fill out. The week prior to our meeting, for instance, it was a going to destroy the area. Sthree-pager informing patients of fire risk in the operating room. Me: But it does emit radiation. He says he tried questioning its necessity, then refusing to sign, Bob: Sure, you’d have to pick it up and move it out. but ultimately gave in. It’s now required for every surgery. Me: It’s a solid waste, but anything it comes into contact with “Why am I so against the ACA?” he says. “Because you have bu- is contaminated. reaucrats in Washington, D.C., determining what’s the best treat- Bob: Yeah, but if somehow it was spilled out in the desert, ment for my patient. There’s no longer the direct patient-physi- you’d just pick it up and put it back in something and take it cian relationship. There’s a bureaucrat between us at all times.” away. Smith predicts that if things keep going the way they are Me: Well, it not like picking up wood chips. It’s still radioac - now, protocol-driven medicine will sap doctors’ ability and/or tive waste. desire to help people. He offers this example: A recent indus- Bob: Yeah, it’s radioactive waste. But you ask a lot of people, try conference where he spoke also featured a representative and they don’t understand that (it’s not a liquid). They feel it from a Midwestern orthopedic surgeons’ group that has case could burn or explode or something. meetings every Monday. They take or reject cases, Smith says,

JANUARY 2017 52 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS MILLENNIAL VOICES the election on all sorts of different out and vote because of anti-Mus- Valley college students look ahead to a groups, but DACA is at the forefront lim sentiments solely. People had changing future BY HEIDI KYSER of danger. It becomes a priority be- other reasons, and it would be way cause it’s on the list of 100 days of too centered on myself to think, action, and it’s just most realistically ‘Oh, you did this because you My ramble through a Las Vegas still reeling going to impact this group soon- dislike me.’ Obviously, that’s not the from Donald Trump’s presidential win led est.” — Amey Evaluna, Community story. I had friends, who are very me to several student groups that are Engagement & Diversity Initiatives, respectful towards my faith and my talking about their new realities. Excerpts Nevada State College practices, who did put that vote in.” from these conversations reflect a young — Tania Dawood, UNLV junior and generation that’s making plans for the MSA treasurer worst, but hoping for the best. 2. At NSC, student body president Desiree Decosta had this to say about UNLV math “I feel it’s really important not to let 1. At the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Mary- instructor Georg Buch, who had recently a hatred or an anger grow inside land Parkway, diversity officials from the reacted to the idea of sanctuary campuses me because of what has happened. College of Southern Nevada and Nevada for undocumented students by claiming he I’m trying to find connections to State College met with UNLV volunteers to would report anyone in his classes that he Trump supporters and understand talk about how they could protect undoc- knew was undocumented (Buch has since why they would choose to vote umented students from deportation. apologized and retracted the statement): for him. So, if I want to relate this “He’s an educator at UNLV; that’s why it’s to my faith as a Muslim, one of the “I’m going to push for resources to so scary for students that are undocu- most important things in Islam is be marketed as being for undoc- mented. Our college campuses should be fighting against tyranny and op- umented students instead of just hubs for learning, not places for spying on pression. So, if you take it from that DACA students. This whole time, students. There’s a lot of concern about point of view, I can kind of connect we’ve left out that whole popu- how we will approach these problems.” A with Trump supporters, because lation of people (who are undoc- couple days later, NSC President Bart Pat- people like Trump don’t come into umented but don’t have DACA terson reassured the student government power for no reason. When you status) without really realizing that, that he wanted to create a welcoming en- have a huge upheaval like that, it’s once the Trump administration vironment for all students to feel safe and because you have this population comes in, we might lose DACA, and get the education they need to graduate. that is being underserved or being then we are all going to be in the neglected in some way. … I’m just boat of being undocumented. It’s 3. At UNLV, the Muslim Students Associ- trying to go back to the most really scary, because people might ation mulled the possibility of discrimi- basic and essential part of being a get deported.” — Mariana Sarmien- nation in a country whose new president, human being, which is, for me as a to, UNLV senior and UndocuNet- during his campaign, proposed creating a Muslim, that we’re all creations of work volunteer Muslim registry and even banning Muslims God and we’re connected to each immigration. other because we are creations “People say, ‘Why does this sudden- of God. So, everything else — the ly just move up in priority of your “I understand — not just because of divides that we make between each work?’ We’re talking about undoc- my major (political science), but as other, they’re all artificial. There are umented students, but of course, someone who’s on a campus and always ways to look beyond that.” women are afraid, other minorities who tries to associate with all types — Muneeba Ahmed, UNLV junior are afraid, there are ramifications of of people — that people didn’t go and MSA vice president

based on criteria such as cost and whether a person smokes or tions should be so-called “never events,” a category that includes has a support network to help with their recovery. Smith says operating on the wrong patient, the wrong organ, the wrong side most attendees at the conference applauded this approach, but and leaving an instrument inside a patient after surgery. he found it appalling. “So, if I have two wound infections next year, they’re going “I went into medicine to help sick people,” he says. “Your to lump me in the same group of guys who amputate the wrong cost-benefit ratio may look good (doing it that way), but are you foot,” Smith says. “That’s the way the government’s going to really taking care of society?” look at it. They don’t want people to have wound infections; I But the Midwestern group’s approach is also understandable, don’t, either. But if it’s going to ruin my career, will I risk taking Smith says, given the regulatory environment. For instance, the care of sick, elderly people?” (Rhetoric aside, he says he will, but government has determined that, starting next year, wound infec- it will cost him time and money.)

JANUARY 2017 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS 53 By focusing on burdensome bureaucratic med- dling in his practice and the move away from patient-centered care, Smith is expressing a view of healthcare reform that’s common among physicians. The New Yorker’s December 19 financial column argues that Trump’s nomination of Georgia Represen- tative Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services underlines the administration’s determination to roll back Obamacare, in part because Price is a doctor. In 2014, a physicians’ trade group survey found that 25 percent of members gave the ACA a grade of F, while only 4 percent gave it an A. One interpretation of doctors’ opposition to healthcare reform is that they’re acting out of financial self-interest; government-subsidized plans that drive down consumer costs can also reduce compe- tition and fees for services. Smith does say he thinks doctors should get paid a fair price for what they do, but he also believes cost transparency is a key solution to solving the country’s healthcare problems. And he concedes that Nevada’s embrace of Obamacare has benefited him (and low-income people), since more of the patients he operates on at UMC have health insurance now than they did pre-ACA. Indeed, according to federal data, some 90,000 Nevadans gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion. This and ACA’s other popular aspects — restricting denial of coverage due to preexist- ing conditions and allowing kids to stay on their parents’ plans longer — could make Obamacare difficult to get rid of outright. I ask Smith what he thinks of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, and he says he thinks Ryan is “one of the honest brokers, who’s trying to do it the right way.” Nevertheless, he’s pessimistic about a true re- (“Womens Group”). I hesitate to go in, because the building peal. He asks me to name another government program that has looks abandoned, but I really have to go to the bathroom, which, been bestowed and then subsequently taken away, and I can’t it turns out, is locked. think of any. (The 1996 welfare reform that kicked millions of I find Suite 3, upstairs on the right, where a middle-aged people off federal unemployment assistance hits me when I’m woman with cheerful eyes and red lipstick is taking clothes driving back to work, of course.) out of a bag and arranging them on a row of tables. She greets In any case, Smith believes that, if anything, we’re moving to- me like we’re old friends, introduces herself as the founder of ward a single-payer system, in which whatever insurance com- Grupo de Mujeres and explains that she’s getting ready for their panies are left a decade from now will all pay Medicare rates. monthly clothing swap. “I don’t care who comes into power,” he says. “To fight the Fun, I say. And do you have a key to the bathroom? million faceless bureaucrats, to change what they’ve already She doesn’t, so I go back downstairs, where the receptionist done, I think will be nearly impossible. I think little changes for a paralegal service in Suite 1 — evidently, the only heated might be able to be made, but I think big changes will be nearly spot in the building — gives me the key to the bathroom (thank impossible.” God!). By the time I get back to the Grupo de Mujeres meeting room, members are trickling in, nodding buenos dias as they rub their hands together briskly. A woman from Puerto Rico shows me a deep scar on her wrist from carpal tunnel surgery a few REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS weeks earlier. I think she’s saying that the operation went well, and the incision is healing on schedule, but I can’t be sure; it’s all in Spanish, a language I haven’t used in conversation since graduate school. I nod and smile, throwing in “Si” when I un- Rosita Castillo derstand something. Around 10:15, Rosita Castillo bursts in towing a rolling suitcase On December’s first cold Friday, I pull up to a business of- filled with literature and condom-stuffed goodie bags, part of her fice fourplex on East Sahara that’s supposed to be the weekly presentation as a Hispanic-community health worker, or promo- meeting location for networking nonprofit Grupo de Mujeres tora de salud, for Planned Parenthood. Castillo’s no-nonsense

JANUARY 2017 O54 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS asked what AIDS was (the situation is then work-shopped). Another asks how to get help for a friend-of-a-friend who just found out she’s HIV-positive. These women aren’t listening as a courtesy, I realize. They’re there to get information they can use. As her presentation winds down, Rosita reminds them where Planned Parenthood is located and mentions that it has programs to help with everything from family com- munication to sexual assault recovery. The group invites her — and me — back for a holiday party and moves on to tea and clothes swapping. Driving away from the fourplex, I wonder what will become of promotores de salud under the new administration. A couple days earlier, Politico reported that 2017 would almost certainly see the revival of a 2015 bill, vetoed by Obama, to defund Planned Par- enthood, which gets more than 40 percent energy pumps up the room, and within minutes of her arrival, of its $1.3 billion annual revenue from the federal government. she’s giving me her autobiography, rapid-fire style: farm worker During his campaign, Trump said he would defund the group, on the West Coast for 10 years, chemical dependency counselor but in true Trump fashion, he also expressed appreciation for in Mexico for 15 years, various government and NGO social work Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services for low-income gigs since. Her passion for community health started when she populations. was a child. Castillo’s boss doesn’t return my calls looking for a follow-up “I remember my mother crying when she found out she was interview. But I get some insight a week later when I drop by pregnant. We were migrant workers, and it was very hard,” she UNLV for an officers meeting of Students United for Reproduc- says. “A lot of women don’t know their rights. They don’t under- tive Justice, a Planned Parenthood-sponsored campus organi- stand that their bodies belong to them. And there are so many zation. barriers to getting health care: immigration status, fear, pover- The current president is handing the reins to Suki Narw- ty. … Health is a human right. Reproductive health is a human al, who’s going over her plans for the spring semester. Narwal right. In Latino cultures, women carry a lot of the responsibility talks about an upcoming conclave of progressive groups where for making sure the family succeeds, so keeping women healthy they’ll formulate their demands for the first 100 days of Trump’s is a priority.” presidency. Noting that the campus pro-life group is currently Castillo says that when she started this work in Las Vegas, out-organizing and out-recruiting SURJ, Raquel Cruz-Juarez, most Latinos didn’t even know that Planned Parenthood exist- the group’s Planned Parenthood advisor, says the gathering will ed. Seven years later, they call it la clinica, “the clinic.” Grupo de be a good opportunity to enlist volunteers by helping people Mujeres is one of many community groups that regularly invite turn their post-election anxiety into action. her to speak. “We definitely know we’re going to get defunded in the first Today, in honor of World AIDS Day, the topic is HIV/AIDS 100 days,” Cruz-Juarez says. prevention and treatment. The dozen or so group members “I can feel the fear,” Narwal says. “It’s so uncomfortable. A lot draw their chairs around her in a circle and listen politely as of people have been contacting me and sharing their concerns. she debunks transmission myths, introduces a new morning-af- So we really need to let them know we’re still there for them.” ter-like pill and urges open discussion to reduce the disease’s stigma. Looking around the 30-something and middle-aged faces, I wonder how much of Castillo’s pitch is getting through. Two ISLAM little girls who’ve come with their moms make eyes at and then advances toward each other, though it doesn’t seem to distract anyone but me. Castillo’s English was hard enough to keep up with; her Spanish whizzes by me so fast I can only catch the oc- Najah Masaddiq casional phrase: zero transmicion (“zero transmissions”), mucho trabajo por hacer (“much work to do”), es problema de todos (“it’s Najah Masaddiq is full of surprises. On the phone she sounds everyone’s problem”), comprender y respetar (“to understand like a 20- or 30-something, but she’s actually 50. She arrives and respect”). to meet me in the lobby of her gated apartment community But after about 20 minutes, the audience gets involved, and on Gowan Road, riding a motorized scooter with a small boy, things take an unexpected turn. One woman shares her experi- her grandson Kye, sitting cross-legged between her feet and ence of giving her daughter a condom for the first time. Anoth- the steering column. And despite being a devoted Muslim who er says she didn’t know how to respond when her 12-year-old wears niqab, the head- and face-covering that conceals all but

JANUARY 2017 N DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS 55 her eyes — the very symbol of demureness — she’s quite direct. Telling me about the bus driver who’s been giving her a hard time since he started on the Martin Luther King Boulevard route that she takes every day to get Kye to Acelero Learn- ing Center, she says, “Yesterday, when I was pulling my wheelchair onto the bus, another passenger who’s not usually there asked what was happening, and he said, ‘She always takes forever.’” And then, as we ride that bus, within earshot of said driver, she says, “You can see that only took a minute!” The biggest surprise comes when we get back to her apartment after dropping Kye off, and she immediately removes her niqab. I had turned away for a moment, and when I turn back, there she is, barefaced (her head scarf, or hijab, was still in place). I feel a flash of intense embarrassment, followed quickly by the thought that she looks nothing like I’d imagined. Masaddiq hasn’t always worn niqab; she hasn’t always been Muslim. The former Southern Baptist con- radical Islamic terrorism, barring Muslim immigrants from verted in 1997 following a personal rough patch. A Gardena, the U.S. and creating a national Muslim registry; or to the an- California, native, she came to Las Vegas in ’92 following the ti-Muslim sentiment that has bubbled to society’s surface since birth of her first child (Kye’s mom), because a girlfriend from his election, manifesting itself in widespread cases of harass- the Navy had convinced her they could live and raise their kids ment nationwide, including several against women in hijab. She together. That didn’t work out, and Masaddiq soon found her- does say that her driver on the MLK route is less patient with self not only pregnant again, but also married to an abusive her than others in wheelchairs, though. It leaves her to wonder man. Disengaging from that relationship, she says, drove her a if it’s because of her religion. little crazy. In her search for sanity, she found Islam. I ask if the bus driver who asked her to remove her niqab “The people from the big mosque here sent me to Masjid As might have been under the same mistaken impression as the Sabur and said, ‘I think you’ll be more comfortable there,’ you Peppermill employee who, in November, ejected Muslim Lou- know, for obvious reasons,” she says, alluding to the mosque’s venia Daan for wearing hijab, blaming it on the Strip restau- ethnic and racial diversity. “And there I learned more about Is- rant’s policy that required patrons’ full head and face to be lam and took my Shahada, which is the oath that Mohammed is visible to security cameras. (Peppermill has since apologized to God’s prophet, and I’ve been there ever since.” Daan and rescinded the policy.) Her faith has steadily deepened over the years, finding ex- “That’s all malarkey,” Masaddiq says. “No, there’s absolutely pression first in her decision to wear hijab, and then, in the fall no reason why you have to take off your head covering. … It’s of 2015, to go full niqab. This wasn’t easy for Masaddiq, because like telling a church lady to take off her church hat. Do they do she has multiple sclerosis, which makes her sensitive to the that? I bet they don’t.” heat. But her worry that the garment would suffocate her has So, I venture: What would she say to someone who argues proven unfounded, she says. that female terrorists in burkas have carried bombs under their She also hasn’t experienced any harassment, until recent- clothing into crowded places and set them off, and that she ly. On another bus route, a driver told her she couldn’t get on could do the same thing in her niqab? “with that thing,” meaning the niqab. But Masaddiq had already She leans back against her sofa, folds her hands over her belly boarded when the conflict broke out, so she stood her ground, and levels a serious gaze at me. saying it was a religious face covering and that she’d been riding “What would I tell them?” she says. “There are terrorists in the bus with it on for nearly a year. She refused to disembark, our country that wear jeans and T-shirts and baseball caps. You forcing the driver to call a supervisor, who verified that, yes, can’t identify who’s a bad person and who’s a good person by religious face coverings are allowed on public transportation. their attire. … We’re living in critical times. We’re living in dan- “When I got off the bus, all she said was, ‘Have a good day,’” gerous times, and people are very afraid of what might happen Masaddiq recalls. “And I said, ‘Thank you, you too,’ and got off tomorrow. I’m kind of afraid of what might happen tomorrow. the bus. But I proceeded to call the RTC at the same time, and But I can’t adjust the person that I am any more than Donald when they heard what had happened, they were aghast. The Trump is going to adjust the person that he is based on how woman on the phone was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry. somebody might feel about him. I have a right to practice my That’s a Title VI incident, and you have to fill out this form,’ religion in the way that I see fit, in the way that makes me happy which I did.” and peaceful. … I’m going to do the best that I can to be the best Masaddiq says it’s impossible to know whether the incident example of Islam that I can be. I cannot tell you how to think. is related to her being Muslim; to Trump’s campaign talk about But nobody else can tell me what to think, either.”

JANUARY 2017 56 DESERTCOMPANION.VEGAS TM

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MARCH 3, 2017 AT NEW YORK–NEW YORK HOTEL & CASINO, LAS VEGAS

Don’t miss the 5 th edition of this breathtaking, one night only production. An annual celebration to raise funds and awareness for critical water issues.

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Baby’s Bounty provides baby bundles to over MOTORCYCLE 50 newborns in need RENTAL. every month. Each bundle is filled with a portable crib, car seat, front Help give carrier, infant bathtub, a good start to clean clothes, diapers Newborns in need and hygiene items. by donating the We also accept essential items donations of gently they require. used baby items. Volunteers collect, sort and clean the items and prepare them for distribution.

To Donate babysbounty.org/donate-to-las-vegas/ To Volunteer call 702-485-2229 or [email protected] Call 702.454.6269 to schedule your reservation. See store for details. 6675 South Tenaya Way • www.bmwoflasvegas.com 01 17 take your Arts+Entertainment calendar for january 5

Feb. 8-11 19 18-22 Dam Short Film Festival Drug Dollars, Boulder Dam Hotel Killing Fields Toruk — The The annual soiree featuring more than 100 short films, plus parties, meet-and-greets and and the New First Flight more – including rumors of a James Franco appearance *squee!* — all held in the historic T-Mobile Arena Boulder Theatre. For details, see Politics of If you see only one damshortfilm.org touring Cirque show Latin America this month based on the The Mob Museum movie Avatar, and featuring projections, indoor 13-15 Author Ioan Grillo talks about kites and puppets, this the rise of narco-kings in Latin ought to be the one. 8p, and Central America, “hybrid $39-up, cirquedusoleil. CEOs, terrorists and rock stars” com/toruk and the new king of threat they The pose. Scary. Essential. 7p, $13.95 (Nevada residents), MountainTop themobmuseum.org The Smith Center

Presented by Broadway in the ’Hood, Katori Hall’s play about Martin Luther King Jr. — born this month in All Month 1929 — takes place inside Memphis’ Lorraine Motel the night before his assas- sination. The charismatic and doomed civil rights Havana — In the Time of Fidel leader meets a mysterious Summerlin Library maid who seems to know a lot about him. 7p, with Cuba is a hotter potato than normal right now, with the matinees 3p & 2p, $34, recent death of Fidel Castro and its uncertain status with the thesmithcenter.com U.S. government. But as these evocative photos by Armand Thomas show, the island’s lovely, dilapidated capital and its resilient people carry on. Free, lvccld.org

january 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 59 THE GUIDE

ART CABRERA CONDUCTS DOM FLEMONS, THE BEETHOVEN & MOZART AMERICAN SONGSTER EDWARD BURTYNSKY: OIL JAN. 14, 7:30P; PRE-C ONCERT JAN. 29, 2P THROUGH JAN. 14 CONVERSATION AT 6:30P A founding member of the Carolina Canadian artist Burtynsky’s exhibition The Las Vegas Philharmonic performs Chocolate Drops, Flemons sings and features more than 50 large-scale color Michael Torke’s Ash; Mozart’s Piano plays banjo, guitar, harmonica and landscape photographs exploring Concerto No. 23 in A Major; K488; many other instruments, including different aspects of the modern world’s and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F bones! $10 in advance, $12 on most transformative resource: oil. Free. Major, Opus 68, Pastoral. Maria concert day. Winchester Cultural Marjorie Barrick Museum at UNLV, Radutu is featured on piano. $30– Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, edwardburtynsky.com $109. Reynolds Hall at The Smith theamericansongster.com Center, thesmithcenter.com

ENCOUNTERS THEATER THROUGH JAN. 14 LAS VEGAS SHOWSTOPPERS The exhibit consist of drawings of … THE BEST OF LAS VEGAS FUN HOME people whom the artist, Donald JAN. 21, 7P; J AN. 22, 3P JAN. 3–8, 7P; J AN. 7–8, 2P Corpier Starr, has encountered over Twenty-five local performers from This hit Broadway musical, based on his lifetime. Free. West Las Vegas recent Las Vegas shows such as Alison Bechdel’s memoir, introduces Arts Center Community Gallery, 947 Million Dollar Quartet, Steve Wynn’s Alison at three different ages as she W. Lake Mead Blvd., artslasvegas.org Showstoppers and Jubilee! will be explores and unravels the mysteries performing along with a live band, of her childhood. Not recommended saluting Vegas icons like Elvis, for children under 13. MUSIC Liberace, Wayne Newton and more. $29–$127. Reynolds Hall at The DEAN WEEN GROUP $20. Starbright Theatre, Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com JAN. 10, 6P starbrighttheatre.htm For more than 30 years, Dean Ween A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC has been best known as the guitar- NEXTET JAN. 13–29, THU-SAT 8P; SUN 2P slinging partner of Gene Ween in the JAN. 25, 7:30P Set in 1900 Sweden, A Little Night international cult band Ween. Dean UNLV’s contemporary music Music explores the tangled web of and Gene formed Ween as middle- ensemble performs the best in new affairs centered on actress Desiree school students in 1984 and released music, including works by students, Armfeldt and the men who love her. nine studio albums and six live faculty, guests, and 20th- and 21st Book by Hugh Wheler, music and albums before going on hiatus in -century masters. Discover something lyrics by Steven Sondheim. 2012. The group reunited in 2016 and original and unusual, and prepare to $21–$24. Las Vegas Little plans to continue performing live. be surprised! Free. Lee and Thomas Theatre, lvlt.org $22–$25. Brooklyn Bowl at The Beam Music Center, unlv.edu Linq, brooklynbowl.com BROADWAY IN THE STORM LARGE: ’HOOD PRESENTS MORE MUSIC OF THE STORMY LOVE THE MOUNTAINTOP CLASSIC HORN BANDS WITH JAN. 27–28, 7P JAN. 13–14, 7P; THE LON BRONSON BAND Rock Star: Supernova finalist Large has JAN. 14, 2P; J AN. 15, 3P JAN. 13, 8P performed around the world, including Playwright Katori Hall’s drama Bronson and his band return to their gigs at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy explores the final hours in the life of roots with an evening of songs Center. She performs songs ranging Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. After a made famous by Chicago, Blood, from Broadway classics to classic rock prophetic speech to sanitation Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power anthems and her own compositions. workers, Dr. King arrives at the and others. $15–$35. Cabaret Jazz $39–$59. Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Lorraine Motel and is visited by a at The Smith Center, Center, thesmithcenter.com mysterious maid who has a bigger thesmithcenter.com mission than just delivering his OPERA LAS VEGAS coffee. $34. Troesh Studio RONNIE FOSTER TRIO PRESENTS DUELING PIANOS Theater at The Smith Center, JAN. 14, 7P JAN. 28, 7:30P thesmithcenter.com Foster emerged in the ’70s as a jazz Philip Fortenberry, Spencer Baker organist on Blue Note and as a and guest artist Yelena Dudochkin MOTOWN THE MUSICAL sideman on seven of George Benson’s will perform an all-Gershwin musical JAN. 17–22, 7:30P; JAN. 21–22, 2P most popular albums, including program, including “Rhapsody in The story of Berry Gordy and his Breezin’. Guitarist Langley worked Blue,” songs from Porgy and Bess iconic label, featuring the hits of The with organist Joey de Francesco for and more. The $199 ticket includes a Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin five years. $10 in advance, $12 on tour of the renovated Liberace Gaye, The Jackson Five and so concert day. Winchester Cultural Mansion. $125–$199. Liberace many more. $29–$127. Reynolds Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, Mansion, 4982 Shirley Street, Hall at The Smith Center, clarkcountynv.gov operalasvegas.com thesmithcenter.com

january 2017 60 DesertCompanion.vegas ANTON CHEKHOV’S C h a n e l 1 0 CHERRY ORCHARD OF THE LIVING DEAD JAN. 19–FEB. 11; THU–SAT 8P; SUN 5P Russian angst meets zombie-fu in Troy Heard’s mash-up of classical theatre and modern horror. Part of Majestic Repertory Theatre’s inaugural season. $25. Majestic Repertory Theatre, majesticrepertory.com

HIR JAN. 19–FEB. 5 THU–SAT 8P; SUN 2P A comedic tragedy by Taylor Mac about Isaac, a marine working in Mortuary Affairs, coming home from Sherlock, Season 4 on the war to take care of his father. Will Isaac’s newly radicalized mother and Masterpiece transgender sibling make it easy for him? $16–$20. Cockroach Theatre, cockroachtheatre.com Premieres Sunday, January 1 at 9 p.m.

LVIP NEW YEAR’S EXTRAVAGANZA JAN. 21, 5PM The Las Vegas Improvisational Players offer clean-burning entertainment — meaning no swearing or even PG-13 comedy — that is made-up right on the spot. For their first show of the year, they are offering live skits and musical comedy for free! Have fun being part of the show, as everything is made up on the spot from suggestions by you — the audience. Free. Windmill Library, lvimprov.com Command and Control: Victoria on American Experience Masterpiece REMEMBERING RED — A TRIBUTE TO RED SKELTON JAN. 25, 7P Tuesday, January 10 at 9 p.m. Premieres Sunday, January 15 Brian Hoffman recreates the best-loved at 9 p.m. sketches and characters of legendary comic Skelton. $15. Starbright Theatre, starbrighttheatre.htm

DRUMLINE LIVE JAN. 26–27, 7:30P A new show created by the musical team behind the hit filmsDrumline and Drumline: A New Beat, based on the marching band tradition of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. $24–$69. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com FRONTLINE: Divided Alzheimer’s: Every CHARLOTTE’S WEB JAN. 30, 10A States of America Minute Counts Wilbur has a problem: How to avoid winding up as pork chops! Charlotte, a fine writer and true friend, weaves a Tuesday and Wednesday, Wednesday, January 25 solution which not only makes Wilbur January 17 and 18 at 9 p.m. at 10 p.m. VegasPBS.org | 3050 E Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89121 | 702.799.1010

january 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 61 THE GUIDE

a prize pig but ensures his place on wiretapped conversations. Free; Matters in the End. Free, tickets the farm forever. E.B. White’s books and merchandise will be required. Artemus W. Ham Concert treasured tale, featuring madcap and available for purchase and signing. Hall at UNLV, atulgawande.com endearing farm animals, explores Clark County Library, lvccld.org bravery, selfless love and the true LIVING A LIFE THAT meaning of friendship. $14. Artemus STORIES TO TELL MATTERS: FROM NAZI W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV, JAN. 14, 2P NIGHTMARE TO theatreworksusa.org International award-winning AMERICAN DREAM storytellers Diane Ferlatte and Djeliba JAN. 29, 2:30P Baba perform an afternoon of folktales Las Vegas-based author, educator DANCE and fables in the African storytelling and entrepreneur Ben Lesser is also a COALESCE tradition. These stories are sure to Holocaust survivor. In his memoir, JAN. 20, 2:30P delight and entertain all audiences. $10 Lesser recalls a time when the world Coalesce means to come together in advance, $15 at the door. went mad and tells how, with and form one mass or whole. See Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 determination and hard work, he went the UNLV Dance Department do just S. Brush St., artslasvegas.org on to achieve the American Dream. that, in their dance recital. $18. Alta Free. Summerlin Library, lvccld.org Ham Fine Arts at UNLV, unlv.edu JACK HIRSCHMAN JAN. 20, 7P FAMILY & FESTIVALS LES BALLETS TROCKADERO Hirschman, who was appointed Poet DE MONTE CARLO Laureate of San Francisco in 2006, GLITTERING LIGHTS JAN. 25, 8P has written more than 50 volumes of THROUGH JAN. 2, SUN-THU Men can, indeed, dance en pointe. poems and essays. He will read from 5–9P; FRI–SAT 5–10P You want to see Les Ballets some of his works. Free. Winchester Leave the Strip to see the real Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s playful, Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, glittering lights! This holiday sensation entertaining parody of classical ballet clarkcountynv.gov is a 2.5-mile circuit that gives because you’re guaranteed to enjoy car-bound visitors the opportunity to dancers like Ida NevaSayNeva and THE POETS’ CORNER see more than 400 animated displays. The Legupski Brothers perform JAN. 20, 7P New this year is the addition of the works from Swan Lake, Esmeralda A monthly forum, hosted by Keith Santa Tram. $20–$70. Las Vegas and Don Quixote. Warm up your Brantley, for established poets and Motor Speedway, winter with the world’s foremost open-mic participants featuring the glitteringlightslasvegas.com all-male comic ballet company. best local talent. Free. West Las $25–$75. Artemus W. Ham Concert Vegas Arts Center, 947 W. Lake DISNEY ON ICE - WORLDS Hall at UNLV, trockadero.org Mead Blvd., 702-229-4800 OF ENCHANTMENT JAN. 12–14, 7P; J AN. 14, BALLET FOLKLORICO BOOK DISCUSSION 11:30P & 3P; J AN. 15, 1P & 5P SOL HUASTECO FEATURNING AUTHOR From wheels to waves, icy JAN. 28, 6P MARK MAYNARD wonderlands to infinity and beyond, Jacquelyn Guzman formed Sol JAN. 21, 2P your family’s favorite Disney moments Huasteco in 2012 after her dance Nevada Reads is the state’s first “one come to life on ice. $18–$83. Thomas students at Rancho High School read” program. The 2016-2017 Nevada & Mack Center, unlv.edu graduated, but wanted to keep Reads novel is Grind, by Mark Maynard, dancing. Since then, the group has a writer from Incline Village, Nevada. THE 16TH ANNUAL performed all over the valley. The Maynard’s debut collection of stories LAS VEGAS JEWISH group boasts fabulous costumes, examines the characters of a town FILM FESTIVAL talented dancers and a deep whose means and meanings are JAN. 14–29, VARIOUS TIMES knowledge of Mexican dance tradition. eroding and are searching for the next The longest running, most popular film $10 in advance, $12 on concert day. big thing, or at least the next thing. festival in Nevada continues to present Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 Free. Laughlin Library, lvccld.org informative and entertaining McLeod Drive, clarkcountynv.gov contemporary global Jewish cinema THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE for the entire community. Various JAN. 25, 7P venues, details at lvjff.org LECTURES, SPEAKERS Atul Gawande, MD’s bold visions for AND PANELS improving performance and safety in A NIGHT OF EXPRESSIONS: WIRETAPPING THE MOB healthcare have made him one of the YOUTH TALENT SHOWCASE JAN. 10, 7P most sought-after speakers in JAN. 27, 7P Kansas City historian, author, medicine. His three books, A showcase of community youth talent documentarian and lawyer Gary Complications, Better and Check-list in singing, dancing, spoken word and Jenkins will discuss how wiretapping Manifesto, have all been highly music, all in recognition of Black History was developed and used by the FBI praised inside and outside the Month. Free. West Las Vegas Library in its fight against organized crime. medical community. His new book is Theatre, contact Willie Henderson at Jenkins will play clips of actual Being Mortal: Medicine and What 702-229-2473 for more information.

january 2017 62 DesertCompanion.vegas You Want to See This . . . Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Sons of Serendip Tuesday, January 24 • 8 p.m Saturday, March 11 • 8 p.m. Hungarian Masterworks Piano Battle: Thursday, February 9 • 7:30 p.m. Andreas Kern vs. Paul Cibis Saturday, March 25 • 8 p.m. David Russell Friday, February 17 • 8 p.m. Ben Verdery Thursday, March 30 • 8 p.m. Simply Three Saturday, February 18 • 8 p.m. Ying Quartet Thursday, April 6 • 7:30 p.m.

pac.unlv.edu • (702) 895-ARTS (2787) 2016 – 2017 season january 2017 DesertCompanion.vegas 63 END NOTE

satire Will you keep your resolutions: a Quiz By Scott Dickensheets

hat squalling baby wearing the “2017” sash means it’s time to set a bunch of self-improvement goals you truly believe you won’t abandon this time. To eat better and exercise. To quit self-destructive behaviors. To be more mindful. To read more. To improve the planet. To just be a better person. T Will this be the year you actually follow through? Possibly! Or will you give up 10. Most recent sporting activity before Baby New Year soils his second diaper because you’re a total loser? Probably! To be A) Pickup basketball with friends (+10) sure, take our predictive quiz and add up your score to gauge your odds of success. B) Monthly pickleball at the rec center (+5) C) Pickleball is too a real sport, jerk (0) 1. Describe your general level of discipline 5. How often do you eat fast food? D) Captain of the Trump University three-card A) I always leave one cookie so I can truthfully A) Never (+5) monte team (-7) say I didn’t eat “the whole box” (-10) B) Occasionally (0) E) Reading Sports Illustrated (-10) B) You know the scene in Will where G. Gordon C) I can’t answer, thanks to the Super Gonzo Liddy holds his hand in the candle flame Cheesy Bacon Jumbo Bacon-Cheese Butter 11. Was it the Swimsuit Issue? without flinching? I taught him that. (+10) Jack I just crammed into my burger hole (-8) A) No (0) B) You’re lying (-5) 2. In what ways do you already try to 6. Kale? C) Okay, yes (-10) be a better person? A) Often (+5) A) My sneakers are non-sweatshop, I give B) Occasionally (+1) 12. How many hours a week do you lounge in money to good causes, I eat nothing that C) Never (-2) front of the TV? had a face (+10) D) Can I smoke it? (-5) A) Fewer than 10 (+10) B) Well, a face I recognize (0) B) I only watch NCIS and its reruns and C) Last week I gave a homeless man some good 7. Sustainable foods are ... spin-offs, so 335 (-5) investment advice and charged just half my A) Produced in a way that minimizes agricul- C) Zero. I’m too busy binge-watching my favor- usual fee (-5) tural impact on the environment and thus ite shows on a smartphone (-7) D) I haven’t yet chainsaw-murdered you for promote global wellness (+5) D) While I drive (-10) asking stupid questions (-10) B) A plot to keep liberals employed at Trader Joe’s. Wrong! Shame! (-5) 13. Speaking of which, have you seen the 3. How’s your blood pressure? new season of Black Mirror? It’s awesome! A) Like a baby’s! Uh, that is, if a baby has good 8. Distance you comfortably walk at one time A) Not yet! Don’t spoil it for me! (+10) blood pressure. What am I, a doctor? (+6) A) One mile (+5) B) No. Just can’t get into that show (-50, putz) B) I blame Obama (0) B) Half-mile (+2) C) Better, now that I found my chainsaw (-10) C) The duration of a Pall Mall light (-5) 14. How many books do you read in a month? D) From my car to the slop trough (-10) A) At least three (+10) 4. Three words that describe your general B) Does skimming the plot summaries on Ama- level of fitness 9. The last time you went to the gym? zon.com count? (-3) A) Trim, healthful, cyclist (+8) A) Within the month (+6) C) I’m waiting until literature arrives in B) Breathe, walk, pant (-5) B) Clarify: to the gym or into the gym? (0) delicious gummy form, thank you (-10) C) Ernest Borgnine-shaped (-7) C) If Pokémon Go gyms count, then 12 D) Books? Clearly you did not see my Make D) Sad! Shame! Unfair! (-10) times today (-5) America Great Again hat? (-15)

SCORE: 100-50: See you next year, Ms. Thin Healthy Better Than Everyone Else! 50-0: If you totally commit to fooling yourself about your chances of success, you might hold out until January 3. LESS THAN 0: Go ahead, eat those pork rinds while sprawled in front of the TV. Also, make sure your beneficiary’s contact information is current.

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JOIN US ON AN INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY

MARCH 3, 2017 AT NEW YORK–NEW YORK HOTEL & CASINO, LAS VEGAS

Don’t miss the 5 th edition of this breathtaking, one night only production. An annual celebration to raise funds and awareness for critical water issues.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW – 1.844.33WATER – ONEDROP.ORG/ONENIGHT

PRESENTED BY