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 By
Judy Thorburn
Entertainment Reporter/Film Critic
Las Vegas Tribune
Owner/Editor in Chief/writer
www.theflickchicks.com
Photos by Stephen Thorburn
Celebrities,
Soccer Team Help Commissioner Reid Open MacCarran Marketplace Park
At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22 actor Jimmy Jean Louis (from the hit
television show “Heroes”), and other celebrity members of the Hollywood
United Football Club joined Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid
to dedicate the new McCarran Marketplace Park and its soccer fields. The
event took place at 5800 Surrey St., just west of Eastern Avenue off
Russell Road.
The semi-pro Hollywood soccer team, made up of actors and entertainers,
mostly British, who are now living in Southern California, kicked off
the first official game on the fields which was followed immediately by
a local youth league game. The team’s mission is to increase soccer’s
popularity in the United States. A last minute addition for Hollywood
United was Frank Leboeuf, a former defender with the French national
soccer team who won the 1998 World Cup with the French team.
Hollywood United played against Las Vegas Premier
League's reigning champions for six years in a row, Tyneside United
Soccer Club. In 2002, they were the first Nevada club to win the USASA
Region IV National Cup Championship, and they represented the state at
the National Finals. Tyneside United also established a
semi-professional team, the Las Vegas Strikers, in the National Premier
Soccer League in 2003.
“This park is a great addition to our recreational sport facilities,”
Reid said. “It’s hard to keep up with the demand for soccer fields, and
McCarran Marketplace Park will fill that need and will accommodate
families with small children who come to watch the games. We’re very
pleased to be able to offer this beautiful new park to the public.”
The soccer park was created by the Department of
Aviation in cooperation with Marnell Properties, the developer of the
McCarran Marketplace master-planned commercial center. The Parks and
Recreation department will maintain and schedule the facility. It
provides much-needed soccer fields for the nearby neighborhoods and will
be used by both community soccer and flag football leagues.
McCarran Marketplace Park is an 8.5-acre facility. Amenities include two
full-sized, fenced, synthetic turf soccer fields, a covered children’s
playground, restrooms, two picnic pavilions, desert landscaping and
parking for about 100 vehicles.
Hogs & Heifers Throws Second
Anniversary Bash
On Thursday evening Hogs & Heifers, the popular honky tonk, located on
210 North 3rd in downtown Las Vegas Street celebrated their second
anniversary. Owner Michelle Dell and her beautiful, sassy and brassy
bartenders entertained their guests with a VIP party that included a
complimentary barbeque, open bar and live musical entertainment by the
Moanin’ Black Snakes. Dell oversees the Las Vegas location as well as
the first Hogs & Heifers in the meatpacking district in New York City
which has seen celebs such as Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts kicking
up their heels on the bar top. Also, this past Thursday, Hogs & Heifers
kicked off the seventh annual Las Vegas BikeFest 2007 festivities by
keeping the party going and opening to the public at 10 pm
Photos Courtesy of Cameron Smith
Rock
Icon Grace Slick Appears at Hollywood Obsessions' Opening of Her Art
Exhibit
From 5-6 p.m. on Saturday, September 29 rock and roll icon Grace Slick,
the former lead singer of the band The Jefferson Airplane whose
psychedelic inspired songs helped define the hippie generation, appeared
in person at a champagne reception held in her honor inside Hollywood
Obsessions art gallery at Planet Hollywood.
Grace Slick
Since retiring from the music business in 1989, Slick
has turned to a new career in the visual arts and has had over 30
exhibits in some of the best galleries in the U.S. Now several pieces of
her artwork can be seen on display in a new Hollywood Obsessions exhibit
that includes her celebrity portraits of rock icons Jimi Hendrix, Janis
Joplin, Jim Morrison and John Lennon as well as colorful paintings that
incorporate her obsession with Alice in Wonderland, all originally
created with acrylic on canvas. While three of her portraits, Lennon,
Morrison and bunny rabbit are unique, i.e original, all the rest are
“based” on one of a kind paintings, using a digital print on canvas
process called “giclees”. The original “White Rabbit in Wonderland”
painting sold for $40,000, but a giclees reproduction is on display with
a price tag of only $2,500.
Artwork by Grace Slick on display at Hollywood Obsessions Gallery in the
Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino
If you would like to see the beautiful artwork of
legendary rock star/turned legendary artist Grace Slick, visit Hollywood
Obsessions gallery located in the lobby/guest registration at the Planet
Hollywood Resort and Casino. The gallery can be reached by calling
702-369-8585.
Other
recent and upcoming “happenings” in Las Vegas include:
To coincide with the release of Halo 3, Xbox 360’s hugely anticipated
third installment of the Halo video game trilogy, at 12:01am Tuesday
morning, Madame Tussauds Las Vegas held a Halo 3 Midnight Madness
game-play competition. Ed Bronds, 39, a video game player from Las
Vegas, NV was the winner after being the first player to complete the
third mission, called “The Road,” at the “Heroic” level in the newly
released video game Halo 3. Las Vegans Ed Martinez and Noble Jackson
were the other two players attempting to complete the mission at that
level. Bronds’ won an Xbox 360 gaming console, a one-year pass to Madame
Tussauds Las Vegas and a refrigerator full of Pepsi’s limited edition
Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Martinez and Jackson each won runners-up
packages that included four passes to Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. All
three players won copies of Halo 3. On September 8 Madame Tussauds
unveiled a life size figure of Halo’s Master Chief as the first video
game character to be enshrined in the world-famous attraction’s 250-year
history.
Ed Bronds, Ed Martinez and Noble Jackson
Wayne Brady, whose successful, critically acclaimed
show Making It Up, at The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino has received an
overwhelming response from audiences is offering a new VIP Package that
will give audiences the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the Emmy
award-winner himself. Priced at only $149 per person, plus tax and
handling fees, the VIP package includes a coveted front-row seat to
watch the action on stage and a personal meet and greet with Brady after
the performance. Show times are Thursday – Monday at 9:00 p.m. in The
Venetian Showroom, though performance dates are subject to change.
Tickets are $49, $69 and $89 plus tax and handling fees. To make
reservations visit www.venetian.com
, call (702) 414-9000 or (866) 641-7469.
Wayne Brady
M&M’S World® Las Vegas celebrates its tenth
anniversary as a Las Vegas retail icon by offering visitors a potpourri
of prizes and special draws throughout the month of October. The store
will offer numerous month-long specials featuring tenth anniversary
coupons for discounts on M&M’S World® purchases, as well as a series of
special anniversary draws, in which visitors can enter to win one of
several $100 gift certificates. In addition, every weekend in October
there will be a wide array of M&M’S World® weekend specials to
commemorate the store’s ‘10 sweet years’ of success.
Each weekend during October 6 thru November 2 Lied Discovery Children’s
Museum will create and exhibit several ofrendas (altars) as part of its
participation in the festivities of Los Días de los Muertos, or the Days
of the Dead. If that sounds depressing, on the contrary, the museum will
be celebrating this Target sponsored event, with many arts and crafts
projects and much more!
Los Días de los Muertos offers an annual opportunity for families to
recollect and celebrate the memories of relatives and friends through
weeks of special preparations. For this special reunion, family and
friends prepare gravesites and altars (ofrendas) with colorful cloths,
streamers, candles, flowers, photographs, richly decorated pan de
muertos (bread of the dead), skull-shaped sugar-sweets, and paper mâché
skeletons. “This holiday is traditionally a private family remembrance
with public aspects at a broader community level, and our Museum is
proud to be the “community living room” for which individuals and
families can come, observe, learn and participate in these rich
traditions,” said Museum spokesperson Lynn Osmera.
Lied Discovery Children’s Museum is located at 833 Las Vegas Boulevard
North, and is open Tue. - Fri. from 9 am to 4 pm, Sat. 10 am to 5 pm and
Sun. Noon – 5 pm. Admission is $8 for adults and $7 for children ages 1
through 17, seniors and military families. Children under one are free.
For more information call (702) 382-KIDS(5437) or visit the Museum
website: www.ldcm.org .
Those in the age range known as the Baby Boomer generation should
delight in knowing that there is going to be The Boomers Show presented
at the Sands Expo Center on October 6 and 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both
days and is open to the public. Several top name celebrities will
participate including Ed Begley Jr. and Richard Simmons. Although he
won’t be there in person, Begley, who hosts a cable TV show called
“Living with Ed,” will be displaying his environmentally friendly
product line, Begley’s Best, which offers valuable ways to save energy,
air quality and money for those who think “green.” Helping people to
live longer and healthier lives is also the mission of exercise guru
Richard Simmons, who will be giving a talk and an exercise class at The
Boomers Show on Saturday afternoon from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Each
dayshow attendees will be able to get information, products and services
from numerous of exhibitors within a variety of categories from second
careers to real estate investments, financial services to healthy
living, anti-aging, travel, aesthetics, technology, fitness,
self-improvement, and more. CVS/pharmacy, the presenting sponsor, will
provide health screenings, samples and information. Electronic Arts,
also a sponsor, will exhibit a variety of video games created for the
Boomer market. HarperLuxe – a division of HarperCollins – will give away
$25,000 worth of books at the Boomers Show.
Admission is $25 per person; however, free tickets can be obtained at
any CVS/pharmacy or on the show’s web site at
http://www.boomersshow.com ,
click Free Tickets.
On October 7, the UNLV Symphony Orchestra with Music Director &
Conductor, Taras Krysa opens the 2007-2008 Season at Artemus Ham Hall.
The performance will include works by A. Copland, J. Musto, with soloist
Stephanie Thorpe and L.V. Beethoven. Tickets are priced at $10 General
Admission, $8 Military/Senior Citizens,$5 UNLV Faculty/Staff, Free to
UNLV students with valid student I.D.
 At
8 p.m.on Thursday, October 11, The UNLV Performing Arts Center opens the
Classical Guitar Series in the Doc Rando Recital Hall with Xuefei Yang,
the first guitarist in China to graduate from music school and a Royal
Academy of Music Associate. Classical Guitar labels her “one of the
greatest classical guitarists of the day” and Classic FM called her most
recent album, Romance de Amor, “superb.”
Tickets to Xuefei Yang are $35.
 At
8 p.m. on Saturday, October 13 as part of the New York Stage & Beyond
Series, The UNLV Performing Arts Center presents the Paul Taylor Dance
Company, founded by Paul Taylor – one of the most sought-after
choreographers of our time. According to The Detroit News, the company
“dazzles the eye and lightens the heart.”
Tickets to the Paul Taylor Dance Company are $35, $50, and $80. Tickets
for the October 11 performance of Xuefei Yang and/or the
October 13 performance of the Paul Taylor Dance Company can be purchased
at the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 895-ARTS (2787) or by
visiting www.pac.unlv.edu .
Student rush tickets are $13 each and available one hour prior to each
event, based on availability and with valid student I.D. UNLV faculty
and staff discounts also are available. A $1 facilities fee, in addition
to the ticket price, is charged on all Performing Arts Center tickets.
The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
 On
Saturday October 13 at 8 p.m. four time Grammy winner and one of the top
female power-ballad performers of all time Pat Benatar and accomplished
guitarist, songwriter and producer Neil Giraldo will perform at Buffalo
Bill’s Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, Nevada. Together they will
perform rock music hits such as “Love is a Battlefield,” “Hit Me with
Your Best Shot” and “We Belong.” Tickets are priced at $39.95 and $29.95
plus applicable taxes and fees and are available at Buffalo Bill’s Box
Office or by calling 1-800-FUN-STOP.
 The
Doors tribute band Peace Frog returns to the Cannery Casino & Hotel for
a two night engagement, Friday, October 19 and Saturday, October 20
performing a fantastic selection of hit songs from one of the most
influential and popular rock groups in history. The concerts begin each
night at 8 p.m. at The Club, an indoor/outdoor venue located at the
Cannery Casino & Hotel. Admission is $5 at the door.
On Saturday, October 13 at 1p.m. The Judy Bayley Theatre on the UNLV
Campus will present a “Musical Tribute To Bobby Darin”, accomplished
singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and Ambassador for the American
Heart Association who died in 1973 as a result of a damaged heart that
was ailing the performer since his youth. The show will star local
performers who will pay tribute to Bobby Darin and take the audience on
a musical journey from the late 1950s thru the early 1970s. Tickets are
$25 and can be purchased by calling the UNLV Performing Arts Center Box
Office at 895-ARTS (2787). All proceeds will benefit the Nevada
Conservatory Theatre and the American Heart Association
Throughout October and into November a series of thirty special events
hosted by Henderson Libraries will take place as part of One Book
Henderson, a program in which Henderson Libraries is encouraging the
entire Henderson community to read one book at the same time.
 On
Sunday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. award-winning author and radio host Mitch
Albom will speak at the Henderson Pavilion – a City of Henderson outdoor
entertainment venue, located at 200 S. Green Valley Parkway, at Paseo
Verde Parkway. Albom’s first novel, “The Five People You Meet in
Heaven,” was chosen as One Book Henderson’s first read. Other related
activities and performances will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Gates
will open at 12 p.m. Free copies of the book will also be available
throughout the community in public gathering places such as coffee
shops, hospitals, city recreation centers and more. Recipients of the
free novels are encouraged to read their copy and pass it on. To ensure
all Henderson residents can participate in the festivities, additional
copies of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” will be available at all
of the library’s four Henderson locations in various formats such as
hardback, paperback, large print, Spanish, and books on CD and cassette.
The library will also offer extra copies of DVDs of “The Five People You
Meet in Heaven” and “Tuesdays with Morrie,” another of Albom’s books,
which spent four years on the NY Times bestsellers list.
 Sunday,
Oct. 21, at 1:30 p.m. bestselling author and motivational speaker Deepak
Chopra will speak at the Henderson Pavilion. Chopra, a former Boston
endocrinologist, is best known for his many bestselling inspirational
books that explore mind-body medicine, a combination of Western medicine
and Eastern philosophy. Chopra has sold more than 20 million copies of
his 50 books and 100 audio, video and CD-ROM materials. His books have
received awards and critical acclaim, including a Quill Award for “Peace
Is the Way.” “How to Know God” and “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”
are just two of his many bestselling books. Tickets for “An Afternoon
with Deepak Chopra” are $10 and may be purchased from the Henderson
Pavilion box office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., by phone
at 267-4TIX (4849) or online at
www.HendersonLive.com .
On Saturday October 20, Alternative rock bands Live and Collective Soul
will perform at the Mandalay Bay Beach. The show will begin at 8 p.m
.Tickets priced at $55, not including applicable service charges and
taxes, are on sale at the Mandalay Bay Events Center box office. To
charge by phone with a major credit card, call the box office at (702)
632-7580. Tickets also are available for purchase at
www.mandalaybay.com
For the sixth consecutive year Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay is
dressing up for Halloween for costumed kids. For one day only, Saturday,
October 27, from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., costumed children 12 and under
may go trick-or-treating at the facility for free. Shark Reef Aquarium
staff will be on hand with treats for children traveling the spooky
hallways in their Halloween costumes. United Blood Services will join
the Halloween festivities. Guests donating or pledging to give blood
will receive complimentary entry into Shark Reef Aquarium. The blood
drive will coincide with the Haunted Reef on Saturday, October 27, and
the hours will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay
Bay is open daily, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Last entry is at 10 p.m. Ticket
prices are $15.95 for adults and $10.95 for children; children four and
under are free. Discounts are available for Nevada residents with
identification. For more information call (702) 632-4555.
Salt Lake City, Utah based company Toyshare, Inc., a membership club for
recreational toys, has expanded its operations to Las Vegas giving
southern Navada members access to the latest models of motor homes,
boats, wave runners, ATV’s and snowmobiles without the worry and hassles
of ownership. Toyshare, Inc. takes care of the maintenance, insurance,
storage, taxes and registration, leaving its members free to get out and
play. Members use the equipment the same way a country club member makes
a tee time to play golf. Toyshare, Inc. offers four levels of membership
customizable to each members usage needs. The new facility is centrally
located at 5041 Sobb Avenue in the southwest part of the Las Vegas
valley, just minutes from the 215 beltway and I-15 freeway.
I’ll be back next week with more of what’s “happening” in and around Las
Vegas.
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