Richard Abowitz
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Story Archive
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Entertainment
Note to Vegas: Stop playing it safe
Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 Why saving Las Vegas will come down to entertainment that's both cheap and essential.
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Entertainment
The fantastic journey of Angelica Bridges
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 To court and back to stay onstage in Vegas for Fantasy at the Luxor.
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Print
Is poetry making a comeback?
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 The lack of expectations has actually helped a long-ignored art form survive.
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Music
Loving Leonard: The Cohen songs we’ll never get enough of
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 Weekly editors weigh in on the Leonard Cohen selections we'd gladly keep on repeat.
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Comedy
George Wallace
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 George Wallace has often been complimented for his marketing savvy, his skill as a promoter and his friends who jump up to guest with him. But lost sometimes is the amount of talent he has as a comedian.
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Entertainment
Time to go for Wayne Newton?
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 Newton could be a great host of a Vegas variety show. But he prefers to keep his show focused on his singing and not on his legacy. The result is sad.
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Entertainment
Fashion Rocks: Stylish clothing meets hard rock at Hard Rock
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 John Varvatos believed there had to be a way to mix music, fashion and commerce together and keep it interesting.
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Entertainment
Matt Goss and Zowie Bowie try to breathe new life into a Vegas oldie—with mixed results
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 Matt Goss and Zowie Bowie are trying to reinvent and revive lounge for Las Vegas. Neither is a total pioneer.
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Print
Introduction to obsession
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 If you don’t know anything about the poetry world, The Anthologist remains a fascinating if lightly plotted study in obsession, creative ambition and the quirks of the human mind.
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Entertainment
After 23-year career, singer/dancer says farewell to the Strip
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 Stephanie Dianna Sanchez has no hard feelings about leaving Fantasy. She understands: That's show business.
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Entertainment
Peepshow: An erotic novelty
Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 It's not all T&A. Peepshow was created with production values and staging in mind, and from the start, compared amazingly well to a traditional Vegas topless show.
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Entertainment
The real deal with Wayne Brady
Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 He's already an actor-singer-dancer-comedian, and Wayne Brady is determined to add even more hyphens to his description.
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Entertainment
Staking its claim
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 Bite has all the elements common to Vegas shows - magic, aerialists, dancing, a singer - but it's got topless vampires, too.
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Entertainment
The Weekly Review: Human Nature
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 With Smokey Robinson producing and fronting for them, Human Nature better be able to deliver the Motown goods at the Imperial Palace. And mostly, the four Australians do not disappoint.
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Entertainment
Magical Macbeth
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 There are few opportunities to work a Las Vegas magician and Shakespeare into the same sentence—most probably involve trickery, irony or metaphor. This one doesn’t involve trickery, though there is a magician.
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Fremont Street
Poetic license
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 Novelist Ivy Pochoda doesn’t get Las Vegas literally correct in her new book, but she wasn’t trying to. It’s the latest entrant in the growing collection of literature set here.
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Technology
Sin City in your hand
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 It took a Vegas-obsessed techie from California to create the killer LV iPhone app.
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Entertainment
Getting (and sometimes making) her props
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 Emily Jillette doesn’t need the money—note the famous last name—but she’s still working her ass off on a super-risky venture: helping open shows in this economy.
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A&E
It's only money
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 For his recent Las Vegas cover story in Time, writer Joel Stein scored a rare sit-down with Sheldon Adelson. Stein describes the interview as one of the strangest of his career.
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adult
Who’s that girl?
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 Meeting the mystery woman behind the sexy courtesan blog.
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Entertainment
A few minutes with Lance Burton
Thursday, July 23, 2009 After months of speculation that he would retire following the expiration of his contract, Burton recently announced a multiyear extension of his contract at the Monte Carlo.
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Dance
Palms production
Thursday, July 23, 2009 Since opening in November 2001, the Palms has never featured a regular headliner. In September 2009, that changes, with the arrival of English singer Matt Goss.
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Comedy
Not in the cards
Thursday, July 23, 2009 For two nights recently, an interesting and confusing group of celebrities was brought together at Town Square’s Shear Madness theater to create an interesting and confusing entertainment experiment.
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Business
Hot, wired
Thursday, July 16, 2009 At the time, Amaryllis was 17, Matt 28. The two began to post their sex life on a website available to subscribers for $19.95. Matt and Amaryllis do not see themselves as pornographers.
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Entertainment
Topless, yes; crazy, not so much
Thursday, July 16, 2009 Crazy Horse’s stars are more natural than the silicone- and saline-sacked showgirls elsewhere. Otherwise, though, Crazy Horse Paris has not aged well.
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adult
Interview Issue: Sunset Thomas
Thursday, July 2, 2009 The adult entertainer and reality-TV star spills the beans one her personal life, as well as her children's.
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Business
Interview Issue: Dave Kirvin
Thursday, July 2, 2009 The Kirvin Doak Communications partner's firm handles some of the biggest accounts in town, but do his kids know the marathon runner has "juice"?
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Entertainment
Don’t stop till you get enough
Thursday, July 2, 2009 There was a time when Michael Jackson’s statue at Madame Tussauds wax museum, in the Venetian, wore a red-and-black outfit and black loafers. No more; wax Jackson now wears a militaristic spacesuit of white and gold.
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A&E
Interview Issue: Scott Zeiger
Thursday, July 2, 2009 Scott Zeiger, the co-chief executive officer of BASE Entertainment, chats about building a brand with Peepshow, compares Vegas audiences to Broadway, and why he has no need for a house.
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As We See It
Red-carpet blues
Thursday, June 25, 2009 To many in the press, what started as the media using the Vegas clubs for celebrity material quickly twisted into the clubs using the media to attract patrons.
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Literature
Roll over, Ginsberg
Thursday, June 18, 2009 When Allen Ginsberg first performed parts of his Howl manuscript in San Francisco on October 7, 1955, the rhapsodically incoherent poem was clear in one way: the announcement that the taboos and hidden things of American life were eating the nation’s soul.
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World Series of Poker
A genius play
Thursday, June 11, 2009 Whoever bought Binion’s to get the World Series of Poker for Harrah’s, and then dumped the casino, still looks like a genius—even in this economy.
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Entertainment
Smartly, Supernatural aims to please casual Santana fan
Thursday, June 4, 2009 Legendary hippie rocker Carlos Santana and the Vegas tourist are on different wavelengths.
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Entertainment
Final encore
Thursday, May 28, 2009 For years the Siegried & Roy shared a home with Danny Gans at the Mirage; now both of their shows have come to shocking and unexpected ends.
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Music
Bob Dylan
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Of course, it should not matter that Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter co-wrote all but one song on the new Bob Dylan record. But there is something unsettling about the greatest lyricist of all time going to the hippie Diane Warren.
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Casino
Always bet on black and white
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Anthony Curtis can gamble, but prefers to make his living writing about it.
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Planet Hollywood
A hound dog in a bear market
Thursday, April 30, 2009 I just can’t help believing,” Elvis once famously sang. And that is how Trent Carlini is approaching launching his new show, Elvolution.
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Entertainment
Rhinestones, pianos and Bicentennial short shorts
Friday, April 24, 2009 Long before Criss Angel called flying on a Vegas stage a magic trick, Liberace did it as showmanship.
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Entertainment
If you build it, will they record?
Thursday, April 23, 2009 When you enter the studio, everything is new and shiny except for the collection of vintage amplifiers from manufacturers like Marshall, which date back to classic rock.
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Planet Hollywood
Behind the scenes at Peepshow
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.
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Music
Celebrating Perry
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.
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Casino
When the giving stops
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.
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Entertainment
Smooth transition?
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.
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Art
The Gamblers
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.
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Entertainment
‘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.
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Entertainment
Bloody Marys?! Awesome!
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.
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Entertainment
La Cage slams shut
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 After 23 years at the Riviera, Frank Marino has joined Las Vegas’ many laid-off workers.
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Music
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
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.