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Fremont Street Experience proudly welcomes

the 7th Annual ACM Weekend on Friday, April 5th

and Saturday, April 6th.

In honor of the 48TH ACADEMY OF

COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS on April 7th,

the free concerts will feature country music

superstars Gary Allan & Jake Owen, along with

ACM Award nominees and special guests.

DOWNTOWN VEGAS

vegasexperience.com

9:00pm Sunny Sweeney ....................................1st Street Stage

9:50pm Joe Nichols ............................................3rd Street Stage

11:00pm Kip Moore ................................................1st Street Stage

12:00am Gary Allan .............................................3rd Street Stage

9:00pm Chris Janson ..........................................1st Street Stage

9:50pm Randy Houser .......................................3rd Street Stage

11:00pm Jana Kramer ..........................................1st Street Stage

12:00am Jake Owen .............................................3rd Street Stage

Sunny Sweeney

Kip MooreJoe Nichols

Chris Janson

Jana KramerRandy Houser

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Lights, Camera, But No Action

Tax incentives may be a devils bargain.

But if Nevada wants to lure flm production, it

doesnt have much choice.

By Kurt Rice

Silver State Production ServiceS founder Chris Ramirez invited me to take a seat in his offce to discuss Nevada Senate Bill 165, the Motion Picture Jobs Creation Act. So I shook his hand, squeezed sideways past a desk just large enough for a laptop piled high with paper, and settled into the narrow, windowless cell that serves as the only private workspace in Silver States small studio in the creative warren of Fremont Streets Emergency Arts. Ramirezs lanky dog, Down-town Abby, opened one lid, stretched her toes and went back to sleep. Passage of SB165 would

certainly be good news for Silver State Productions. Not only would Ramirez get an

adult-size offce and maybe a couch for Abby, but he could also safely increase his current staff. I am taking a gamble with 15 full-time employees right now. If the bill passes, I can keep those 15 people employed, and then I could see our company growing to 40 to 70 full-timers and building a bigger studio.SB165 offers qualifying flm

productions (which specifcally do no not include pornography, most live programming and student projects) with budgets greater than $100,000 a tax credit for up to 27 percent of the money they spend in Nevada.It may seem obvious that a

guy who makes his living in flm would be all in favor of a tax break for the industry. But

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Ramirez hasnt always believed incentives were necessary. A couple of years ago when Silver State Productions was work-ing in Reno on The Motel Life, he was able to convince the producers to shift production from New Mexico to Nevada. [At that time] I thought, We dont need tax incentives. Ne-vada is such a beautiful state. But I was so nave. [Other states were] giving away so much money and making it so attrac-tive. He predicted there would come a point when people will build their own Las Vegas. Sure enough thats what they did; they built their own Fremont Street in New Mexico to shoot [the CBS TV show] Vegas. Producers are eager to shoot

in Nevada, but it just doesnt

make sense for them when so many other states offer incen-tives. Everybody I met at the Sundance Film Festival was talking about Nevada working on a tax incentive, Ramirez says. Everybody I bring it up to thinks Nevada and Las Vegas would be an amazing place to flm. We have the hotel rooms, we have the rental cars, its fve hours from L.A. To help illustrate, Ramirez

explains that Jason Statham is shooting a remake of Burt Reynolds Heat, but the out-come for Nevada is opposite of what happened with The Motel Life. One-hundred percent of the script takes place in Las Vegas, so they came out over Christmas [to shoot some ex-teriors], and we showed them such cool shit. They loved it. So I said, OK, so can we do this here? They said no, absolutely not. Why? Because the decision is up to the fnanciers. All their money is tied now to incen-tives. Now movies wont even get made without them.Similar bills have been

foated in Nevada beforemost recently in the 2011 sessionbut none have passed. Senator Aar-on Ford, D-Las Vegas, the bills primary sponsor, seems conf-dent it will make it through this time around. This bill came out of the chute with bipartisan support. I am a Democrat, and the Senate minority leader, Republican Michael Roberson, is a co-sponsor. It also came out with bicameral support and, for a lack of a better term, bi-industrial support in the sense that I have the chambers of commerce as well as labor on board. The governors offce has already indicated, although I dont want to speak for the gov-ernor, that they are enamored

of the idea and as long as the numbers can pencil out, were good to go.But some are far less enthu-

siastic and argue that, sure, while its great for guys like Ramirez, it ultimately screws the rest of us. The Nevada Pol-icy Research Institute, which identifes itself as a free-mar-ket think tank, says the bill is a loser for taxpayers.Every dollar that is awarded

through a special tax credit is a dollar that is unavailable to fnance public services, NPRI Deputy Policy Director Geof-frey Lawrence says.Lawrence cites data from the

Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Offce, which concludes that the program creates a net loss for the states budget even after accounting for all mul-tiplier effects and additional employment created by the flm industry. The fscal effect was an annual net loss for the state budget of more than $48 million annually in every year between 2006 and 2011. On the other hand, in a Ne-

vada Film Incentive Task Force comparative study published in May 2012, authors Josh Cohen and JR Reid, both players in Nevadas flm industry, cited numbers from the Louisiana Economic Development offce showing the states flm-produc-tion revenue increasing 6,600 percent between 2002 and 2006 after passage of a 25 percent flm-production tax incentive.They argue that with careful

structuring, incentive mea-sures can work to engender growth, concluding that Nevadas primary competitors have found that 25 percent is the sweet spot for attracting medium-size productions, long-term jobs and infrastruc-

ture, while still keeping the program fscally positive and benefcial to feeder industries. Selecting statistics to ft de-

sired conclusions isnt exactly new. And to further confuse things, it seems that states may not be doing a great job of tracking incentive data. A Pew Center on the States

meta-study published in April 2012 titled Evidence Counts concludes that no state regularly and rigorously tests whether [incentives] are working and ensures lawmak-ers consider this information when deciding whether to use them, how much to spend and who should get them. The Pew study includes a

particularly telling example. New Mexicocited repeatedly by proponents of SB165 since producers of Vegas chose it over the actual Las Vegashas had diffculty pinning down whether or not its incentive is fscally advantageous (see Page 77).Pew also notes that a 2008

study conducted by New Mexico State University researchers, found that the states investment generated just 14 cents per dollar in new revenue, but that another study conducted a year later by Ernst and Young for the State Film Offce found that every dollar spent on the flm tax credit generated 94 cents in new state revenue. Ramirez understands the

concerns of those who are worried the Motion Picture Jobs Creation Act will end up costing the state more than it brings in. He believes we dont have to give away everything; we just have to offer something to give producers the excuse they need to come to Nevada.

And hes willing to back down if it doesnt work. Dont get me wrong, I dont want to take money from anywhere, he says. [But] I frmly believe tax incentives will help. Id love for the state to put up hurdles and say, Listen, we have reserva-tions about this, but if you do X, Y and Z [you can] prove to us [the incentives are worth it]. I think the whole industry would jump through those hoops.Ford agrees. The decline in

the number of dollars we have been able to bring into the flm industry tells the whole story, he says. It is just overwhelm-ing. Film production income in Nevada has declined 43 percent in the last decade from $155 million to $89 million. Other states flm incentives are the reasons why the industry comes here and only does a couple days of shooting. They get what they need from Nevada and then they go to New Mexico. Why would they tell the Ralph Lamb story in New Mexico? Be-cause they have a tax incentive.The Tax Foundationa

Washington, D.C.-based think tank whose analyses NPRI uses to bolster its argument against SB165admits that flm tax incentives are an arms race. The solution? A moratorium on them, either voluntary or unilateral. But the foundation concedes that getting the states to lay down their incentives and make peace will be ex-tremely diffcult.In the meantime, if Nevada

wants to attract flm produc-tion, it doesnt have much choice. One certainty about tax incentives is that they always have unforeseen consequenc-es. Another is that if we dont have them, production will head for states that do.

From gritty alleys off Fremont Street to Glitter Gulch and the desert, Las Vegas has plenty to offer film productionsjust no incentives.

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would we be able to go from 6,500 to 18,500 and still fll it? We all had doubts about that.

Danny: At the time, my dad only wanted it to be about 12,000 seats. He didnt think they could sell out the 18,500. The thing that sticks out in my mind, and only in Vegas could you do this, the opening act for the Thomas & Mack was a fund-raiser for the basketball team hosted by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Diana Ross. The whole team wore black tuxedos with white-and-red-striped tennis shoes. And theres a picture of Diana Ross singing Reach Out and Touch (Some-bodys Hand) and holding hands with Booker, and some other players all swaying to the music. That doesnt happen at any other college. Vegas was a special place in a lot of ways, particularly early in my dads career, because of things like that. Having Wayne Newton sing the national anthem or Bill Cosby come to watch you prac-tice, those things just didnt happen at other colleges.

In the Thomas & Mack, UNLV expanded on its glitzy pregame show and player introductions, increas-ingly ramping up the spectacle as the Rebels regained their status as a national power, remaining one for the rest of Tarkanians career.

Danny: In the 70s when I was a young kid and idolizing the Rebels, they had the red, blue, green and yellow lights that few around [the Convention Cen-ter], and it was wonderful. They started with that. Then they added the red carpet. And they added the freworks [in 1986], but then the freworks always got better. Then they added the shark [spotlights] going around the foor, the shark clap and the shark mascot. It all evolved. It just got bigger and bigger.

Calvert: Some coaches, like Jerry Pimm at UC Santa Barbara and John Thompson at Georgetown, used to go in the locker room after their teams were announced because of it. Some people said it was worth 10 points. CBS was the only net-work in those days that carried the introductions, which was pretty cool because no one ever did that before. The Chicago Bulls copied us. They came to us and visited with all of us. They got their own music, but they did virtually the same damn thing that we did.

Leon Symanski: They brought me out on a recruiting visit [in 1984], and I had never been here before. It was the last home game of the regular season, and they were late picking me up from the air-port. So as I was coming in the tunnel to the Thomas & Mack, it was when 18,500 were on their feet, a standing O for the seniors, who were out on the foor with their parents, along with Lois and Jerry. Flowers were raining down, fashbulbs were popping, cameras were rollingit was very surreal for my frst time in the Thomas & Mack to have that experience.

The 1986-87 Rebels had one of the greatest seasons in program history, led by sharpshooting Las Vegas native Freddie Banks, All-American forward Armon Gilliam and slick-passing guard Mark Wade, along with athletic forwards Jarvis Basnight and Gerald Paddio, and senior subs Gary Graham and Eldridge Hudson.

Symanski: Nike would pro-vide us with apparel, and that year we had these black, shiny sweatsuits that were almost leather-looking. And they were kind of thug-looking. We were in the preseason NIT, and we made it to the semifnals for that Thanksgiving weekend, and the frst game we played against Temple and went to double overtime and won. So the next day was Thanksgiving, and Coach Tark said, OK, all four teams are going to have Thanks-giving dinner in this ballroom, and heres what time you have to be there. And, of course, we all showed up, shoes untied, wear-ing these black leather-looking sweatsuits, hats on backward, and the other three teams were basically in sport coats and ties. Lois and Jerry were there at the entrance of the dining hall, and Lois looked at us and said, You guys have to go back and put on your sport coats. And everybody just started laughing, and Coach looked at his wife and said, You gotta be kidding me? These guys dont own sport coats. And when we walked in, the whole place went silent. All the other teams were just look-ing at us. That kind of summed up that year, because we had six seniors, and we had guys who were very mature and knew what we had to do, and werent intimidated by anyone or anything. And that really helped our confdence level.

Rothermel: We had the larg-est home crowd weve ever had: 20,321 when we played Navy [led by All-American center Da-vid Robinson]. Le Riggle was our ticket manager, and she came to me early and said, Brad, weve sold it out. We have no seats. So we created the concept of best available seat. If you had a ticket and you saw an empty seat, you could sit there until the holder of that seat came. And if you look at pictures from that game, you cant see the aisles. They were completely flled. So when we got to 19,000 [tickets sold], Le came down and said, We have no tickets left. I said, Just keep selling them, but lets call the fre mar-shal. So we called the fre mar-shal and said, How many can we sell? He said, How many do you think you can sell? I said, Probably 25,000. He said, Oh no, we cant put 25,000 in there. I said, Well, you tell us what we can have, and well sell up to that. And he said, What about 20,200? I said, Le, thats it. But we could have sold a lotmore. That night Armon Gil-liam became a nationally recog-nized basketball player. David Robinson got three fouls early, and Armon dominated him.

UNLV entered the 1987 NCAA tournament with just one loss, an 89-88 defeat at Oklahoma in which Gary Graham hit a 3-pointer before halftime that offcials ruled a 2-point basket. After beating Idaho State, Kansas State and Wyoming in the frst three rounds of the tourna-ment, Tarkanian would gain one of

his greatest victories ever, followed immediately by one of his most crushing defeats.

Symanski: All season we were just blowing people out. So were playing Iowa in the Kingdome in Seattle in the Elite Eight, and they had great players and all the momentum. Our chemistry was off, we were not hitting shots, and we were down by 16 at the half. So Coach Tark comes in and does his speech at halftime, and then Gary Graham said, All right, coaches, youre going over there. Team, were going over here. And the seniors took the team aside, and we had our own meeting at halftime, without the coaches. It was basically a look-each-other-in-the-eye gut check, and we said, We need to play like we know how to play, and were not going to lose this game. Lets break this into four fve-minute games, and by the time we get to the fourth game, we want to be ahead or tied. And that was our strategy.

Rothermel: Gerald Paddio was a great player for us, but hed had 19 lousy games in a row. He had a real good pre-season NIT tournament in New York and hit a jump shot with no time left to beat Temple, and then we beat Western Ken-tucky in double overtime. But hed been terrible after that; he couldnt hit a shot. I said to Coach, Why in the hell do you keep playing Gerald? He said, Ill tell you what, Gerald will win a game for us before this year is over. So we went in the locker room at halftime of that Iowa game, and Jerry pointed right at Gerald and said, Youre

either going to shoot us in it or youre going to shoot us out of it, because were coming to you every time. And he went out and made, I think, seven of his frst nine jumpers, and within 10 minutes we caught them [Paddio and Freddie Banks combined for 23 points during UNLVs 27-4 second-half run].

Lois: We all got in the bus to go back to our hotel after win-ning the game, and when we got there, there was a big crowd of people, and they rocked the bus. I mean, they rocked the bus, yelling out to the players. I was worried they were going to turn the doggone bus over, thats how many there were. And I said to myself, My God, this is like being a rock star.

Symanski: I think we got [to New Orleans for the Final Four] too early. I think we got there on Wednesday when we should have gotten there maybe on late Thursday. We stayed in the [French] Quarter, and we should have stayed out of the mayhem. Because our guys were older, we really didnt think we had to adhere to the rules. We wanted to go see New Orleans, and maybe that got us a little distracted from the task at hand. Coach was not happy with our practices; we were not focused. He seemed a little out of sorts, too. I think he felt a little differ-ent type of pressure. We were ranked No. 1 and we were the No. 1 seed, and Indiana came in and they probably had a little bit more focus than we did. Our defense was not as sharp as it should have been; we still played an amazing game to be scoring in the 90s. Freddie hit

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of his university, his city, his family and his heritage, and to bring any type of shame to any of those entities, hes going to take it very personally.

TOP OF THE WORLD

After upsetting No. 1 Arizona and reaching the Elite Eight in the 1989 NCAA tournament, Tarkanian signed 6-foot-7 junior Larry Johnson from Odessa (Texas) Junior College. Adding Johnson to a roster that returned standouts such as Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, David Butler, Anderson Hunt and Moses Scurry gave Tarkanian all the pieces he needed for a special season.

Anderson Hunt: We got our confdence in 89 at the end of the season after we beat Ari-zona, even though Seton Hall put it on us after that. But once Larry came, that just took us to the next level. We couldnt be stopped then.

Koloskie: We were playing San Jose State at home, and it was 56-34 at halftime. And our guys played the most fawless frst half of basketball that you could ever play. So all the guys get in the locker room, and theyre just sitting there. And Tark would always do the same thing, come in with his hands in his pockets, head down. Hed walk to the front, walk to the back, kinda thinking of what hes going to say. And if we werent playing very well, hed start out by yelling. He would go off for like fve minutes. So, anyway, at this game, Tarks walking back and forth, and hes looking at the stat sheet, and he really doesnt know what to say. And Larry Johnson looks at him and says, What do you got to say now, Coach? And thats the only time in 10 years I ever saw Tark smile at halftime.

Hunt: Tark was the master motivator. Before every game, hed say, You know these guys think theyre better than you. They dont think you deserve this. Or if you were playing on CBS or something, hed say, You can fool me, you can fool the coaches, but you cant fool all the people back home watching in your neighborhood. He motivated us every game, whether we played Pacific or LSU.

Ten players were suspended for at least one game that season, nine for not paying incidental charges at ho-

tels where the team stayed the previ-ous season, and another for failing to keep current on a student loan. Tarkanian kept his team focused through the turmoil, but the Rebels season almost became derailed on February 12, 1990, when point guard Greg Anthony fell to the Thomas & Mack foor after colliding in the frst half with Fresno States Wilbert Hooker. Despite breaking his jaw in two places, Anthony was at practice the next day, wearing a hockey hel-met. He played against No. 25 New Mexico State two days later with his jaw wired shut, leading the team to a 109-86 victory, and remained in the lineup the rest of the season.

Calvert: Greg Anthony breaks his jaw, and then the next day hes at practice? Thats incred-ible. He lived on milkshakes. He frst wore that mask, but then he ditched that, with his jaw wired shut. If that didnt spur everybody on to the ultimate, then I dont know what did.

Rothermel: When Greg went down, it was liter-ally the break that united the team. That demonstrated, especially to Stacey and Larry, that he was tough, that he could play tough.

Calvert: This team personifed the loyalty to Jerry. It was defnitely us against the world be-cause then all these things came down; everything was com-ing to a head: the suspensions, the accusations of improprieties and rule-breaking and all this kind of stuff. They just basically came together and withdrew from everybody.

Hunt: Tark just kept telling us, You need to stick together. They dont want us to win a championship. Theyre going to do anything they can to break us down and get us unfo-cused. The NCAA really wants me, but theyre trying to take it out on all of you.

The Rebels nearly stumbled in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, surviving a two-point win over Ball State, before steamrolling Loyola Marymount 131-101 to reach the Fi-nal Four, and wearing down Georgia Tech 90-81 to reach the champion-ship game for the frst time. In the

title match against Duke, UNLV rode an 18-0 second-half run to a crush-ing 103-73 triumphstill a title-game record for largest margin of victory.

Hunt: When we played Duke, Tark said, Theyre white-collar, and were the blue-collar guys. All the people working in steel mills, theyre rooting for us. All the people on Wall Street and corporate America, theyre rooting for Duke. It was funny, but that motivated us. He didnt really even have to coach the sec-ond half. After we went on that run, it was like we were on cruise control. We expected to win, but we didnt expect to win by 30. That was just one of those nights where everything was clicking.

Rothermel: When he had the game under control, hed

put those boots out on the foor and put his hands up behind his head and stretch back. You knew it was over when that happened.

Two months after the Rebels won the national championship, Rothermel, a strong proponent of Tarkanian, announced his resignation as athletic director, effective at the end of the year. On July 20, the NCAA banned UNLV from defending its crown, citing gross rules violations, but a deal was worked out just before the season started that al-lowed the Rebels to defend their title but banned Tarkanians team from the 1992 NCAA tournament. Then, in December, the NCAA fled a letter of inquiry alleging 29 infractions by UNLV, mostly stemming from the 1986 recruitment of Lloyd Daniels. Even with the constant distractions,

the Rebelswith their core of John-son, Augmon, Anthony, Hunt and center George Ackles picked up where they left off, destroying each opponent and becoming national celebrities in the process.

Hunt: We were so big. I remember going to [the short-lived bar] Tarkanians, right across the street from UNLV. There was one night when there was a boxing match on the Strip, and it seemed like everybody who had gone to the fght came to Tarkanians, and the line was wrapped around Maryland Parkway. We were like rock stars at Tarkanians. So when were walking in, Eddie Murphy was in line still trying to get in, and we walked straight through. Looking back on it, its like,

Wow! But when I was young, it was like, Yeah, we do this all the time. We defnitely got a lot of extra a lot of extra love. Ill say that. I remember signing breasts. I remember signing babies, all types of stuff. It was crazy. Those were the good-old days.

Koloskie: That season we had our players get interviewed by legal counsel; we had them getting interviewed by the NCAA. We had media attention at our practices, and it was never about the team. It was about everything other than the team. We

had people trying to dig up dirt all over, and different things coming out. And it was every single day. The only solitude that our athletes and coaches had during that time was the three hours that they were in practice.

Hunt: On every road trip, we used to always have a gambling party: cards, dice. We used to call it the Rio. And wherever we were playing, wed invite the other team over. Sometimes they would come, sometimes they wouldnt. I threw one when we were playing Georgetown in the 91 NCAA tournament, and I told [Rebels center] Elmore [Spencer]it was standing-room-only in the room, a fre hazarddont open the door for anybody else. So I hear a knock on the door. I said, Dont answer the door, Elmore. I think I was on the dice, too. He

opens the door, and all I hear is Mrs. Tark saying, Anderson, can I talk to you outside for a minute? So I said, Yes, Mrs. Tark. Ive still got the dice in my hand. She says, Dont you know this is the biggest game of my husbands career? He has never beaten Georgetown. If you get all these people out in 30 minutes, I wont tell him. I said, OK, Mrs. Tark, Ill get them out in 15. And she never told him.

After winning 45 straight games dating to the previous season, the Rebels returned to the Final Four for a rematch with Duke. UNLV led 74-71 with 3:51 left when Anthony was called for an offensive foul, his ffth personal of the game, which sent him to the bench. Without their point guard, the Rebels unraveled down the stretch, losing 79-77 when a hurried, last-second shot by Hunt failed to fnd the mark.

Koloskie: After the game was over, it was probably the most devastating experience Ill probably ever have. To have been in that locker room after that game, it was the most down Ive ever seen a group of guys.

Hunt: We had just beaten them by 30 the year before. And a lot of guys were think-ing about where they were going in the NBA draft. And we just it just wasnt the same. I think Tark didnt have enough confdence in Elmore Spencer, Melvin Love, all our big guys, to check Christian Laettner, so thats a reason why he didnt play those guys. I think we un-derestimated Grant Hill. He was probably the best player on the court that day, as a freshman. They were more athletic that year than they were in 90. But thats no excuse; we still should have won. Nine times out of 10, well win that game. I havent watched the flm to this day.

Koloskie: I remember Larry Johnsons voicemail at his apartment after that. When you would call it, he was, Hey, this is Larry. Sorry we didnt get it done. And, yes, I know I maybe should have taken the last shot. Everybody took the responsibility for things they didnt do in that game.

TWILIGHT OF THE SHARK

The Duke loss was the beginning of the end for Tarkanian at UNLV. University President Robert Maxson, who envisioned turning UNLV into

We were like rock stars. Ed-die Murphy was in line trying to get into the bar, and we walked straight through.Anderson Hunt

nightlife

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You were the first big head-lining DJ/producer in this current wave of electronic dance music in Las Vegas. What are your thoughts on the path clubbing in the city has taken? Its great. Its similar to

what we haveand still havein Europe with Ibiza. When I went home, a lot of British people asked me, Whats it like [in Las Vegas]? Whats going on? There are a lot of DJs, whether [they have] a monthly, weekly, bimonthly

residency. Its good for the scene.

Since Perfecto can be attrib-uted to the shift in music programming/creating interactive club experiences in Las Vegas, do you think electronic music will con-tinue as the dominant draw in Vegas clubs, or will we move on to more commer-cial hip-hop or open-format again? I think it will continue with-

out a doubt.

Would you do another Las Vegas residency? If its the right one, yeah. We

did Perfecto for three years, and toward the end of it I had other things that I needed to do, and I liked the idea of taking some time away from it and seeing what happens.

Whats your opinion of the sound electronic music has taken as of late?Well, it all sounds the same,

doesnt it? It all sounds the same, and everyones playing

the same records. Im general-izing of course; not every-ones got the same records. Its interesting because you hear a lot of the promoters complaining, but theyre still booking the same DJs.

What will it take for current producers to experiment more with the musicand who could lead that charge?Daft Punk will change it

when their record drops, because a lot of the new producers all look [up to] Daft Punk and theyre going to fol-low them straightaway. Whats good is the Daft Punk album is based around live musi-cianstheyre not following a trendand its still more of an 80s sound with their infu-ences. That will be incredibly refreshing, because the record will do very well and a lot of people will realize they dont have to copy everyone else. From my point of view, its

songs: songs, melody and great singers with more of a cutting-edge sound. Its harder to fnd sounds, be-cause technology is so readily available and unless youre

working with live musicians, its very diffcult to fnd sounds that no one else is us-ing. Youve got to have songs. Its all about the songs. Why do you think that three of the biggest DJsCalvin Harris, David Guetta and Swedish House Mafaare success-ful? Because its songs. Thats where it is in my opinion.

How would you describe your Fluoro sound as op-posed to the Perfecto sound Las Vegas is familiar with?Fluoro Ive always been a fan

of, I enjoy it, its very melodic, but very cutting edge. I dont tend to play Fluoro sets in America. Ive always been playing different kinds of stuff. Even with my three-hour residency in Vegas, the last hour was more under-ground; the frst hour was more commercial. I havent really found a club in America where I can play Fluoro. Its a real late-night/after-hours sound. Saying that, theres always a way of making it happen, just like we did with Perfecto in Vegas.

Any plans for an after-hours gig in Las Vegas?We were talking about do-

ing an after-hours. Id like to play there once a month and do after-hours. Although its got to be with the people who have the same kind of vision.

Since youll be at Lavo on a Tuesday industry night with more locals, how will you musically gear your set?The industry like yourself

has been good and supported me, so the whole idea was to come back and do an industry night to give something back, really. Thats why Im doing Lavo. Vegas is a big part of what Ive done; Im proud of what Ive done in Vegas, and we created a scene when there was nothing there. A lot of my community was all against it. I took some stick for going to Vegas. I have a lot of good friends there, so to come and play more of an industry night was something I thought Id like to do, and Ill play my style, which is melodic.

Paul Oakenfold Is the New IbizaCatching up with the DJ/producer who helped change

Las Vegas nightlife

By Deanna Rilling

Before everyone graBBed on to (and subsequently strangled the life out of) the Las Vegas is the new Ibiza tagline, Paul Oakenfold can be credited as one of the frst in the scene to call it, circa 2008. His groundbreaking three-year Perfecto residency at Rain changed the game as we know it, including the electronic dance music that now commands the prime-time slot, instilling the idea of a costumed cast of performers hanging from the ceiling and even allowing the previously taboo glow sticks back into the club. The model of a world-renowned DJ/producer as the main draw subsequently helped transform Las Vegas into the electronic-dance-music playground it now is. We caught up with the legendary British DJ/producer Oakenfold before he returns to Las Vegas to spin a guest set at Lavo on April 9.

Oakenfold chats about his current projects and the new defnition of a DJ residency at VegasSeven.com/Oakenfold.

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[ Continued from Page 77 ] Television

Vegas initially seemed a strong bet, backed by solid buzz and expected double-barreled charisma from its headliners: a veteran movie star in Quaid and an established TV star in Michael Chiklis, late of The Shield and The Commish. More advantages? Compel-

ling setup: tense face-offs between rugged lawman Lamb (toothy/scowly Quaid) and mob-connected casino opera-tor Vincent Savino (chrome-domed Chiklis in understated-menace mode). Seductive setting: 1960s Vegas, at its classy, tuxedos-and-gowns best (as opposed to todays glitz-blitzed Strip and its fanny-packed throngs). Plus both starsand ace mob chronicler Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino)among the producers, invested in a quality product.Packin that showbiz heat,

Vegas debuted on September 25 opposite NBCs Parenthood and ABCs Private Practice, capturing 15 million viewers, topping its competitors combined. Eventu-ally, Vegas leveled off to a week-ly average of 12 million viewers, a still-decent performance.That could mean exactly zip.

Its the demos, stupidYoud imagine baby boom-

ers, who are turning seniors into the dominant age demo in the United States, and can fash way more cash than their offspring, would be ardently courted by advertisers, whose patronage fuels network TV.Wrong-o. Youre 18 to 49 years old?

Uncle Ad Man wants YOU. You spend money and youre prone to changing buying habits and switching brands, rendering you susceptible to their come-ons. Youre 50-plus? Catch the early-bird special, Granny and Gramps. You save your money, your spending patterns have calcifed (why buy Crest when youve been scrubbing the pearlies with Colgate for decades?), and youve already made your ma-jor purchases in life.Under that rubric, Vegas is

foundering. Those 12 million viewers? Only a piddly 2.7 million come from the jackpot demo. That 16th-tie ranking overall? Reverse it for demo standings: Vegas places 61st.Lets backtrack into the

math-nerd calculations of Nielsen Media Researchat whose stats-obsessed altar networks worshipand their demo grading system.Formula: A demo rating

represents the percentage of

the 126.5 million adults ages 18 to 49 who live in a U.S. house-hold with a televisionand are watching a particular program.On that scale, NBCs Sunday

Night Football, with a 7.8 rating in the 18-49 demo, occupies the tippy-top rung this season. However, given that sports is event programming, a fairer comparison is the weekly-se-ries category, in which CBS The Big Bang Theory rules with a 4.9. Now consider Vegas trajec-

tory: Bowing with an already-low 2.5 in the 18-49 demo, it dropped to 2.0 in week two, and by week four had tumbled to 1.6. Over one monthan alarming 40 percent plunge.Gauged over 15 episodes so

far, Vegas averages 1.7. Compar-atively, in the same Tuesday-at-10 slot on CBS last season, Unforgettable scored a 2.3and got canned. (CBS has since revived it for a summer run.) Should Vegas time-slot

competitor, Parenthood, earn renewal from NBC despite at-tracting fewer overall eyeballs than Quaid and Company, remember that its paltry 1.9 demo still trumped Vegas. Perhaps on sinking NBC

which placed a humiliating ffth, behind Univision, in the 18-49 demo for all prime-time programming during Febru-ary sweepsVegas numbers wouldnt sound the cancella-tion alarm. Bottom-dwelling already, the Peacock net wouldnt have much to lose by nurturing a show like Vegas, heavily promoting it and taking time to add more youthful ele-ments. (Patience proved fruit-ful to NBC decades ago, when it wouldnt abandon initially

low-rated Cheers and Seinfeld.) On CBSthe leader in overall

viewers that also took the 18-49 crown in FebruaryVegas prospects are considerably iffer as the Tiffany network is less inclined to let a demo loser drag down its stellar ratings. Ironically, this Nielsen quag-

mire mightve been avoided (and more creative freedom granted) had Vegas landed on less pressurized cablesay, HBO, where it wouldve made a cozy companion to Atlantic City-themed Boardwalk Empire.

Yes, its the demos, plus Budget-busting issues will

also factor into CBS verdict. Vegas is reportedly an expensive little prime-time bauble. Trade publications note that Quaid and Chiklis earn salaries beft-ting their status, and re-creating earlier-era Vegasthe series is not flmed here, but on sets in New Mexico and Californiarepresents a sizable expense.Placing Vegas in the early 60s

might also cost it viewers. De-spite the eras vivid history, suc-cessful series set in the 60s, or arcing into them from the 50s, are fairly rare. Among around 40 in prime-time history, you could only call a handfulChina Beach, Crime Story, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Wonder

Years and Mad Menbona fde hits. Excepting Mad Men, they were Nielsen champs when boomers dominated the cov-eted demo, supporting series centered around themselves.Baby-boomer nostalgiadig

those Kennedy-era cars with the fns, and those dorky fedoras!likely isnt destination viewing for their kids and grandkids.Yet in February, Chiklis told a

fan on Twitter: No [it wont be canceled]. Vegas is a powerful show with a huge audience that will continue to grow. We need a run of shows without so many preemptions. CBS is very smart. They have a plan.Actors are complimentary to

their network overlords. Until theyre thrown overboard.

What about, ya know, the show?Creatively, Vegas is a good-

but-not-as-good-as-it-could-be series hobbled by inexplica-ble lethargy from a surprising source: Quaid. On the big screen, hes a compelling pres-ence. On the small screen, not so much. Drawling to excess as Lambour take-no-shit sheriff from 1961 to 1979he never seems to own a scene.Famously, Marshall McLuhan

labeled flm a hot medium and TV a cool medium. Dial-

ing down his intense persona, James Caan, another macho movie dude, ft the small screen snugly but still tossed off sparks on NBCs former Las Vegas. Quaids setting, at least when he isnt shooting or clobbering some baddie, is set several notches too low.Ripple effect: Chiklis, so

memorably intimidating as good-cop/bad-cop-in-one Vic Mackey in The Shield, doesnt have enough to bounce off of in their few shared scenes. Wisely, Chiklis turns down the heat on Savinothe casino kingpin cant afford unbridled ruthlessness, caught between pleasing his Chi-town mob overseers and sidestepping Ve-gas law enforcersbut he may be victimized by his own skill.So burned into our psyches

is the brutish Mackey that its tough not to superimpose it over everything Chiklis does. Plots have been decent,

though creakily familiar, juxtaposing what one could call The CBS Murder Mystery of the Night for the hero to solve (yaaaawn) against the more intriguing machinations at the Savoy, the resort run by Savino. Breakout performer? Radiat-

ing the slinky carnality of a classic Hitchcock blonde, Sarah Jones dazzles as count-room manager/skimmer Mia Rizzo, whose cool, cat-like sexiness makes the screen purr. Portray-ing her dad, wiseguy Johnny Rizzo, menacing Michael Wiseman was a tripwire ever ready to explode. You couldnt turn away when he was on, but he was sacrifced too early for a short-term plot point when Lambs younger brother, Dep-uty Jack Lamb (Jason OMara) killed him in self-defense, even as he dated his daughter.Disappointingly, while

Pileggi reportedly punches up dialogue, he hasnt penned an episode since the pilot. Encouragingly, though, recent outings have introduced an extra element of glamour. Hollywood characters have surfaced in Vegas, widening the plotlinesa hook that just might reel in younger viewers.What if Vegas still bites the

desert dust? CSI, our network iron man, has already been green-lighted for Season 14.Vegas might not survive on

TV. Vegas always will.

PreemPtions and

schedule hoPscotch are

nearly always a ticket to

cancellationville.

Vegas, starring Taylor Handley, Dennis Quaid and Jason OMara, faces an uncertain future, its demographic ratings pointing toward cancellation.

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extreme thing FestivalDesert Breeze Park, March 30

An army of scantily clad underage rebels with

multi-colored hair descended upon Desert Breeze

Park for the 12th annual music festival.

Mindless Self Indulgence played a 45-minute set

complete with absurd insults from outlandish frontman

Jimmy Urine. Recognizable tracks such as Stupid MF

and Straight to Video brought waves of nostalgia to

those old enough to experience it. Colorado natives

3OH!3 took the stage next, playing to a relatively tame

crowd with the exception of a few troublemakers. Sage

Francis was the highlight of the hip-hop stage, which

mainly featured lesser-known indie rappers. Sage

stayed true to his name with astute social and political

commentary. His set started out well with some of his

more melodic singles such as Sea Lion, but then de-

clined when he rapped over hit songs such as the Pix-

ies Where Is My Mind? and Nine Inch Nails Closer.

New Found Glory closed the festival by playing fast and

hard. Lead singer Jordan Pundik projected his iconic

nasally vocals into the mic with intensity. It was difficult

understanding him, but the crowd didnt mind. And as

long as there were plenty of teenagers giving away

hugs and kisses, nothing seemed to matter.

Ashley Gates

New Found Glory

Sage Francis

We Gave It Hell

Mindless Self Indulgence

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movies

[by tribune media services]short reviews

right in the middle of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which is one sort of action movie, theres another, better one that lasts fve or six very good minutes.Were in the Himalayas,

where the fancy ninjas such as Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) and Snake Eyes (Ray Park) go for a little me-time and to brush up on their train-ing. With a sword to my head, I couldnt tell you who was fghting whom, but on the face of a mountainside, with dozens of ninjas hooked up to mountain-climbing ropes, the slash-and-plunge combat served up by director Jon M. Chu (who made the tasty sec-ond and third Step Up flms) makes for a lucid and exciting sequence. It may be hoked-up digitally beyond anything re-sembling human behaviorits Spider-Man behavior, with the climbing ropes used for mile-

long swingsbut it works.Then were dragged back to

the other movie, the one in keeping with the concerns, the body count and the general eh quality level of the frst G.I. Joe flm released four years ago.The stars of G.I. Joe: Retali-

ation, which is not to be con-fused with G.I. Joe: Appeasement or G.I. Joe: Lets Talk Through Our Differences, are Dwayne John-son as Roadblock; Channing Tatum as Duke; D.J. Cotrona as Flint; and Adrianne Palicki as Lady Jaye. The plot concerns the murder of the Pakistani president; stolen nukes; a frame-up job by arch-fends COBRA (not the insurance people, for the record) disgrac-ing the Joes. The Joes fght back. Spoiler: They win.Now and then screenwriters

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, whose Zombieland I liked, fre off a peculiar zinger that catch-

es your ear, especially when Jonathan Pryce (in the dual role of the real U.S. president and the evil lookalike now running things) escalates global warfare with a demented sort of lan. Many are killed. The Joes truly enjoy their killing. They kill with style and a smile. Bruce Willis plays the ur-Joe, Joe Colton, who joins the Joes in the retaliation promised by the title and whose kitchen draw-ers and cupboards are flled with lovingly ogled weaponry.The directive behind this

sequel, clearly, was nonstop

action. Lets think about that phrase a second. Do we re-ally want our action movies to deliver action that does not stop? Ever? I get a little tired of action sequences that wont stop. G.I. Joe: Retaliation has some trouble with tone: One minute its wisecracks between Johnson and Tatum as theyre sitting on the couch with their little Xbox joysticks, and the next, London is fattened (mil-lions dead, presumably, though we never hear about it) by the antagonists weapons of mass destruction. The screening I

attended was full of preteens to whom G.I. Joe: Retaliation has been marketed.I submit that playing with

G.I. Joe action fgures when youre that age, as I didand apparently everyone in the cast of this movie did, according to the flms press materi-alsis not the same experience as a preteen soaking up this amount of PG-13-rated slaugh-ter. Thats what the Xbox is for, after all.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (PG-13)

real american ZeroG.I. Joe is like a video game, but without

the fun of playing

By Michael PhillipsTribune Media Services

Olympus Has Fallen (R) This movie is Die Hard in the White House,

where terrorists appear out of nowhere to

storm Washington, take over the White House

and seize the president (Aaron Eckhart) and

most of the cabinet. Their only hope is former

Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard

Butler), the only man who knows how to get

into the fortified presidential bunker where

the hostages are. Banning proceeds to stab,

shoot and strangle his way through legions

of terrorists. There are much better thrillers

out there; this one is just a manifestation of a

first-person shooter video game.

Admission (PG) In this fraught romantic comedy, Portia

(Tina Fey) is a Princeton University admis-

sions officer with a secret. Her live-in

boyfriend, a professor played by Michael

Sheen, treats her like a dogliterally. But

on a road trip, Portia visits a new-age

alternative high school, run by John (Paul

Rudd). John has reason to believe that a

promising applicant just might be the same

boy that Portia gave up for adoption. Fey

and Rudd are smooth as silk together, but

the film is only half good.

Spring Breakers (R) Writer-director Harmony Korine is a resolute

sleaze monger. He cares little for impulse

control. All this helps Spring Breakers, in

which not-so-innocent debauchery turns

sociopathic on a dime. Its about four teenage

girls, three nasty (Ashley Benson, Vanessa

Hudgens and Rachel Korine), one nice (Sele-

na Gomez). Determined to have a memorable

vacation, the girls get some spending cash by

fake-pistol-waving in a restaurant. But things

steadily move into a more dangerous space,

with an impressive turn by James Franco as

a lively gangsta rapper called Alien.

The Croods (PG) Its Ice Age with humans and less ice. The

Croods are a brood of cavepeople; theres

Ugg (Nicolas Cage), Ugga (Catherine Keener),

Eep (Emma Stone) and some others. Earth-

quaked out of their dwelling, the Crood brood

embarks on a search for a new home. They

come across Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a caveboy

who knows about fire and has things called

ideas. Guy leads the Croods toward a place

he calls Tomorrow where survival lies. Not

a whole lot here, and like most Dreamworks

vehicles, its way too much.

Live action figures Tatum and Johnson.

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movies

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (PG) All of the skilled actors on display in this ab-

surd comedy cant save the film. Las Vegas

magicians Burt (Steve Carell) and Anton

Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have a stale

act, and Burts become a terrible person.

They cant stand each other. And theres

a dangerous new kid in town, a Jackass-y

performer (Jim Carrey) who gives the

bloodthirsty public what it wants. While Alan

Arkin and Olivia Wilde manage ably in their

scenes, the rest of the movie is poor.

The Call (R) Jordan (Halle Berry) is a hotshot 911 opera-

tor in Los Angeles. On a call in which she

tries to coach a teenage girl away from a

home invasion, Jordan slips up, fails, and

the girl is murdered. Dedicated to redeem

herself, Jordan gets another emergency call

in the form of Casey (Abigail Breslin), who

has been drugged and kidnapped and wakes

up in the trunk of a speeding car. Jordan

coaches the hysterical teen through a series

of daunting situations. Berry is enough of a

pro to handle this, but the film is a dud.

Oz: The Great and Powerful (PG)

Sam Raimis digital blockbuster prequel to

the Hollywood classic is uneven but agree-

ably managed. Oscar Oz Diggs (James

Franco) is a carny magician who departs

1905 Kansas via tornado and lands in Oz.

He runs into witches, including Theodora

(Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and

Glinda (Michelle Williams), and has the

company of a winged monkey (voiced by

Zach Braff). Oz must lead the revolution to

restore order to the land.

21 and Over (R) At least this rip-off of The Hangover was

done by dudes who wrote The Hangover. In

yet another crude comedy, this is the story

of Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), who goes out

on the town for his 21st birthday. His gonzo

friend Miller (Miles Teller) and the more

responsible Casey (Skylar Austin) get him

blind drunk. Told in the usual flashback,

theres a sorority house, a pep rally, a

progressive dorm drinking party, and then

the campus police station and the infirmary.

There are laughs here, but its a total rip-off.

Jack the Giant Slayer (PG-13)

This giant, straining blockbuster reinvents

Jack and the Beanstalk as see Jack gape; see

Jack run; see Jack slay giants. Bryan Singer

(The Usual Suspects, X-Men) directs, and the

movie is a bit too much: too much yelling,

too much running, too much flaming tree

throwing. Jack (Nicholas Hoult) trades his

horse for magic beans, and, you know, the

beanstalk connects the human world and the

world of giants. Mayhem ensues. Its just too

much fantasy action for its own good.

Phantom (R) In March 1968, about 1,800 miles northwest

of Oahu in the Pacific Ocean, the Soviet

submarine K-129 exceeded its crush depth

and imploded, for mysterious reasons. All

crew members were lost, and the sub sank

with three ballistic nuclear missiles and

two nuclear torpedoes. Capt. Dmitri Zubov

(Ed Harris) does his best to hold off the

alternately motivated KGB agents on board.

The movie is OK, but its remarkable that

they could make a snoozer out of those

reliably suspenseful subs.

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