Columnist Susan Snyder: Resistance effort rocks on

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Although proposed guidelines for development on Blue Diamond Hill wallow in a committee's clutches and rumors of a sale run rampant, its protectors are not straying from the cause.

Members of the Red Rock Resistance successfully beat back a developer's hopes to build some 8,400 homes on a hill overlooking the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area west of town last fall.

But members of the grassroots group say the fight to protect the former James Hardie gypsum mine is not over, and they are hosting a benefit jamboree Saturday.

The event is at 7 p.m. in the recreation hall in Blue Diamond, which is a teeny town off State Road 159 about 15 miles west of the County Road 215 beltway. The recreation hall is the large Quonset hut-style building in the center of town.

There will be a $5 cover charge, cash bar and prize drawing. Music is to be provided by the bands Pilot to Orion, Tarah and Maroon Swoon and Hickweed.

Break out your "Save Red Rock Canyon" buttons and show your support.

Artsy types can stay closer to town this weekend and hear a lecture by noted San Francisco artist William T. Wiley, whose work has been on display at Las Vegas Art Museum.

Wiley, a painter, will be talking about artistic concerns to mark the closing of his exhibit titled, "Private Eye/Public View: The Wally Goodman and Patrick Duffy Collection."

The lecture is at 2 p.m. in the museum, 9600 West Sahara Ave., which is just west of Fort Apache Road near The Lakes and Summerlin.

Admission to the lecture is free, but admission to the museum is $5 for adults, $3 for people 65 and older and $2 for students. Admission is free to museum members and children younger than 12.

The 65-year-old Wiley started out as an abstract expressionist painter, but his style evolved over the decades and he is now considered a leading proponent of the California "funk" art movement. His themes touch on a variety of subjects including the environment, history, performance art and Zen Buddhism.

Reservations for the lecture are recommended. Call 360-8000.

Attention race fans: Break out your Sunday-go-to-meetin' NASCAR jacket. The folks over at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are looking for "true NASCAR fans" to be in a Pontiac commercial to be filmed at the speedway Jan. 22-25.

Gosh, that's right before Super Bowl Sunday! Toss in breakfast in bed from Pamela Anderson, and you've got the Holy Trilogy of (fill in the blank yourself. I don't want the mail).

Producers are looking for 150 feature extras, who will be paid $100 a day plus meals. If your motor home is good enough to be used in the commercial, it also will earn $100. For once, it can pay for its own gas to get out there.

There also will be jobs for 100 nonfeatured extras who will be paid in meals and fun.

Casting calls are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the speedway. Wear NASCAR attire and bring the motorhome if you want it considered.

For information call the speedway public relations office, 632-8231.

Powder your nose. They're taking pictures.