Richard Abowitz

Story Archive

Behind the scenes at Peepshow: New Las Vegan Katie Webber is ready for her close-up; Thursday, April 16, 2009; It isn’t just about being in the spotlight—sometimes you need to make sure your glistening high heels don’t literally reflect too much as you bask in the fabled metaphor for success.
Celebrating Perry: Stars turn out for the alterna-god’s 50th-birthday bash; Thursday, April 16, 2009; Perry Farrell’s 50th-birthday party at the Mirage pool turned into a celebration of generations’ worth of alternative, punk and even commercial music. In many ways, this was a journey back in time.
When the giving stops: When corporations have money problems, so do charities; Thursday, April 9, 2009; Las Vegas is a town that depends on nonprofits more than most cities of its size, and one of the most visible signs of giving in Vegas is from corporate foundations.
Smooth transition?: The company that brought Céline Dion, Bette Midler and Cher to Vegas looks to continue that success with Santana at the new Joint; Thursday, April 2, 2009; AEG live/Concerts West is about to put their sterling reputation to the test with this week’s announcement that Santana will become the resident headliner at the Joint at the Hard Rock.
The Gamblers: Art stars Dave Hickey and Libby Lumpkin bet big on Las Vegas’s potential as an international art spot. Turns out the city was bluffing.; Thursday, March 26, 2009; Dave Hickey and Libby Lumpkin are an unlikely looking couple with complementary talents who came to Vegas and spent almost two decades pursuing a dream: that Las Vegas was in a unique position and ready to become a player in the art world.
The short goodbye: Jeff Beacher is heading for the sticks, but he plans to come back big; Thursday, March 12, 2009; Jeff Beacher, showman and icon of Vegas success as excess, held a “farewell” party as a host at Tao recently. As with most things Beacher, first appearances were deceiving.
‘We would be in a show for old bags to get that feeling again’: Thursday, March 5, 2009; It looked like a high-school reunion, except everyone was way too good-looking. “No one here has aged,” said one attendee.
Hey, you got your book in my movie: Thursday, March 5, 2009; The Black Mountain Institute’s series of occasional lectures becomes a partnership with local festival CineVegas for “Books Into Film: How Novels Become Movies.”
Bloody Marys?! Awesome!: Also, hookers. Scenes from a charity biker run to the Chicken Ranch; Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009; At 9 a.m. the hookers at the Chicken Ranch are dressed and ready. Usually they wear gowns and look intentionally, even zealously, girly.
Sorry, Sammy: Years before Davis, Josephine Baker was desegregating Vegas casinos; Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009; It seems almost like a fairy tale in which a lone black woman—before the civil rights movement, before the integrated Rat Pack appeared on the Strip, even before the Voting Rights Act—stood against the powers that were in Vegas in 1952 and won.
La Cage slams shut: Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009; After 23 years at the Riviera, Frank Marino has joined Las Vegas’ many laid-off workers.
Let's make a deal!: Perhaps it’s time for the government to sell all that memorabilia it doesn't really need; Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009; Real people who have bills and not enough money might put their useless stuff up for sale on eBay, the contemporary take on a garage sale. If desperate, they might sell stuff they care about/
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: The Tiffany Transcriptions; Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009; Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys championed Western swing for nearly 30 years, bringing their music by bus from one small town to the next, playing dances to pay their bills.
Staying power: The Erotic Heritage Museum survives mostly thanks to—surprise!—locals; Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009; Even sex, at least the not-for-profit kind, is feeling the recession. But, as with other museums, big sponsors help.
Re-experiencing Fremont Street: Downtown is riding the economy better than the Strip. We take a look.; Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009; The vibe at The Fremont Street Experience has changed from even a year ago, when panhandlers and bargain-hunters and a terrible odor were the most obvious memories taken from visits to the Experience.
Strange circle of friends: Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009; "Friends” might not be the best word to describe the uneasy yet undeniably connected gathering of artists grouped at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art’s latest exhibit, Classic Contemporary: Lichtenstein, Warhol & Friends.
The states we're in: Examining the state of the Valley from four different perspectives; Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009; Look around. Everywhere, mixed signals. At lunch the other day, the Yard House in Town Square was packed. You wonder, this is a recession?
Suds and buds: Bloggers prove quite the social bunch at Beer & Blog; Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009; As with most things that come to Vegas, Beer & Blog originated somewhere else, in this case Portland, Oregon.
Down and out at Trop and Boulder: Scenes from my long week at an unusual motel; Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009; A group of men are standing in the cold. They watch me with wan faces, rubbing their hands for warmth. They don’t speak much, only look at each other and at the castle behind them.
Where’s the outrage? Online.: The quest to identify Las Vegans supporting Proposition 8 was easy, thanks to the web; Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009; An online Nevada blacklist containing the names of people and companies who gave money to support Proposition 8 in California recalls the notorious--and effective--blacklist of 1940s and ’50s Hollywood, meant to keep alleged communists out of work.
Not so hot: The upcoming adult expo highlights an industry with a complicated future; Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008; This year Adult Entertainment Expo organizers expect to bring 30,000 porn professionals and their fans to town. But this year, the usually frivolous and party-filled convention is faced with a series of shadows.
Still fab-"O"-lous at 10: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008; O quietly marked its 10th anniversary in 2008. Far from dating, however, the show remains a timeless experience; even its technology still impresses.
Red-carpet McDonald’s: Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008; When a new restaurant opens on the Strip, owners like to announce their presence to the world with a grand opening. This turns out to be true even when the restaurant isn’t at all grand, like the new McDonald’s next to Circus Circus.
Eclipsed by the competition?: A solar convention in Las Vegas gets a disastrously low turnout; Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008; The Solar Convention proved one thing: The future of solar is not sunny.
Friday on their minds: A walk around Las Vegas on the busiest shopping day of the year; Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008; At 6:15 a.m. on Black Friday the line outside the Office Max at a strip mall near Sunset Station numbered in the dozens. Do people give office supplies as holiday presents?
The Fireman: Electric Arguments; Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008; In what fantasy rock-band league do the bass players of Killing Joke and The Beatles form a band? Yet The Fireman is unquestionably the sound of Youth and Paul McCartney working together.
Phantom: surviving and thriving on the Strip: Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008; Panic was in the air when Phantom—The Las Vegas Spectacular first raised its curtain at the Venetian in June 2006. Producers were understandably nervous about what had once seemed a sure thing: one of the most successful musicals in history permanently showing at the most popular tourist spot on Earth.
Gambling on gambling: Are Vegas casinos in need of a bailout? And could it ever happen?; Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008; Las Vegas, like Detroit, is a one-industry town. And, like Detroit’s, our industry is in deep trouble.
(Nervous) letters from home: A Weekly writer goes outside his comfort zone to adopt an airman; Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008; I never intended to adopt an airman. And now I was pondering what sort of airman I wanted. Were there women airmen?
Oh, how the Seasons change in Jersey: Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008; Jersey Boys’ narrative pours real blood into the veins of The Four Seasons’ members, bringing to life the times and culture that produced them.
Rex and the city: Edgy blogger Vegas Rex brings his horny insight to the commercial mainstream; Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008; Vegas Rex looks her up and down, and then asks the attractive hostess assigned to give us a tour of Minus 5, “Will the cold make my penis shrink?”
Porn again: The XXXChurch is bringing its mission of fighting porn addiction to Las Vegas; Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008; The XXXChurch ministers to people addicted to porn, largely by attending porn conventions and handing out literature.
Pyramid scheme: Luxor de-themes in effort to create 'wow-factor'; Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008; In July 2007, Luxor announced a $300 million renovation to undertake the seemingly perverse task of taking the Egyptian theme out of the pyramid-shaped resort.
Mooselini look-alike contest proves to be a bipartisan affair: Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008; The Sarah Palins were getting tipsy. There were 13 Palins, in bikinis and other outfits that you would freeze in if you wore them in Alaska.
‘I was surprised by how much good stuff there was’: Talking with Cheryll Glotfelty, editor of Literary Nevada; Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008; Can you name a major American writer from Nevada? I can’t. But undeterred, Cheryll Glotfelty, a professor of English at the University of Nevada-Reno, assembled Literary Nevada.
Republican cookies: Watching the debate with McCain's people; Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008; Want to guess on which channel the McCain-Palin supporters watched last week’s debate when they gathered at Brendan’s Irish Pub at the Orleans? You are correct.
Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006; Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008; After what one scholar called her “battle years,” describing the time of wild and fertile creations of the early 1860s, Emily Dickinson’s later poetry has a calmer, while no less grim, quality, and always faces ultimate truths. And listening to Tell Tale Signs, Volume 8 in Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series, it makes more sense to compare Dylan to a Civil War-era poet than to place him in the landscape of today’s music.
Strip Silence: What happens when a city that has to keep moving suddenly stops?; Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008; Recently, in a typical two-day stretch for work, I checked out the grand-opening gala of Donny & Marie at the Flamingo and the soft opening of Criss Angel Believe at Luxor. Sadly, the week before, I was out of town during the celebrity-packed openings of SushiSamba and Lavo.
Air support: Flo Rogers shares her thoughts about keeping our priorites in the current economy; Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008; Flo Rogers is only the second leader in the station’s [KNPR 88.9-FM] history and the first to face trying to fund public radio in the midst of a major economic downturn.
Assembly District 5 - Toussaint vs. Loop vs. Woolbright: Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008; Republican Donna Toussaint, Democrat Marilyn Loop and Independent Don Woolbright are all vying for the District 5 state assembly seat.
Risky business: Attorney Allen Lichtenstein discusses the gray area involved in licensing sex clubs; Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008; In both his private practice and as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, attorney Allen Lichtenstein has been fighting for the rights of adult businesses in Sin City.
The Juice is ... been there, done that: This one is barely trial of the month; Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008; What is now going on at the Regional Justice Center is really just an echo from the trial of the century. The police and the media were the primary witnesses to what little spectacle attended Day 1 of O.J. Simpson’s kidnapping and robbery trial in Vegas. This was good news for the attention-seekers who did take the time to put in an appearance. A line of reporters was waiting to interview a lady dressed as Wonder Woman.
Monk business: If a Buddhist blesses an exhibit and nobody comes, did it happen?; Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008; Dressed in monks’ robes, with appropriately shaved heads, the half-dozen men acted more like tourists than religious figures about to perform a sacred ceremony. Or, as the press release described the occasion, with much fanfare: “Buddhist monks from all over the Las Vegas Valley will come together to perform an ancient blessing on the 13 whole-body specimens inside the brand-new Bodies: The Exhibition at Luxor.”
Why Las Vegas won't host a political convention any time soon (duh): Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008; Denver and St. Paul are all-American cities, the sorts of places that host national political conventions. But why not Las Vegas? This city in many ways embodies the American dream.
Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun; Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008; The best that can be said about Brian Wilson’s That Lucky Old Sun is that, like ’70s Beach Boys discs 15 Big Ones and Love You, it exists as neither total embarrassment nor praiseworthy contribution to his catalog.
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis: Two Men With the Blues; Thursday, July 31, 2008; On July 16, 1930, country music’s founding father, Jimmie Rodgers, and jazz progenitor Louis Armstrong found common ground in the blues, creating “Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standing on the Corner),” one of history’s most unlikely and extraordinary recordings. Almost 80 years later, on Two Men With the Blues, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis find the same sweet spot—a perfect match between Nelson’s Western swing and Marsalis’ New Orleans jazz—showing how much vitality remains to be mined from that earlier recorded encounter between jazz and country
Fear and breathing in Las Vegas: Sunday, July 6, 2008; http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2008030942_trvegassmoke06.html
No heroes: The whole story behind World War II’s fiery finish; Thursday, July 3, 2008; The generation that fought World War II is beginning to pass, and few remember much about the final year of the war with Imperial Japan except for the decision to use the atomic bomb. That choice has echoed through history without context, endlessly second-guessed, attacked and defended.
Old 97's: Blame it on Gravity; Thursday, May 22, 2008; Determined and dogged are the two words that describe the Old 97’s music and behavior. The band formed in the early ’90s as part of the alternative country movement (albeit with a pop streak), releasing independent singles and discs and eventually winding up on a major label for a few years, before being unceremoniously dumped.
Reid tells the Daily Show: We're in a holding pattern: Monday, May 5, 2008