Julie Murray: Making a Difference

Making a Difference

Aug 2012

When I first hear Julie Murray’s voice as she answers with a hello, greeting me like the oldest of friends, I instantly am awash in a sense of wellbeing. I feel safe. She cannot know my worries; the big and small things that allow stress to injure my day, but somehow it seems that she does. Instantly, I am aware that she is one of those far too rare individuals who have a real ability to inspire. I want to know more about this woman, and I want to know what I can do to help her make the world better.

“Just do one thing,” Murray tells me when I ask what the average Las Vegas resident can do to help. Too often when confronted with the massive social problems facing Southern Nevada and the country at large many of us freeze. There’s nothing I can do about (insert social issue here).

This attitude is easy to understand. Childhood hunger is a massive and difficult problem in America. Access to quality healthcare, despite or perhaps because of Obama care, remains an issue that can destroy families and devastate lives. The education system in the United States has sunk considerably in world rankings, coming in as “average” in one recent study. Any one of these problems alone seems staggering. Combine them into a fierce juggernaut of social destruction and they seem positively insurmountable.

Yet Julie Murray doesn’t see it that way, and for a woman who has been a fierce social architect for over two decades, building and guiding numerous charitable and philanthropic organizations, her vision deserves attention. She provides a glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and she strives daily to bring that illumination closer. She provides hope. She will be the first to tell you that she has not done this alone. In truth, she emphatically states that it is impossible to do alone. Throughout her career she has been blessed to work with some amazing and diverse people who all share in her desire to leave the world a better place than she found it. To her, this is the core of charity and philanthropy.



A native of Apple Valley, California, Murray’s family moved to Las Vegas when she was just six years old. In a city that has become famous for its transiency that more than qualifies her as a lifelong resident. She counts her parents and grandparents as her earliest and most strident mentors. It was through them that she first got the hunger to improve the world around her. She quickly learned that she was good at it, and that she could inspire people and rally them to come together.

One of her earliest endeavors was the I Have A Dream Foundation, which “adopted” 55 at risk children and “committed to stay involved in their development through high school and beyond.” Over $225,000 was secured annually by the efforts of Murray and her team. The program has also seen an 83 percent graduation rate—three times higher than their peers. It has been lauded as one of the most successful K-12 education models in the country.


She was also heavily involved with the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation and helped secure $36 million in funding for the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a K-12 charter school that gives Las Vegas students from the city’s most at risk neighborhoods a great education.

While Murray remains involved with both groups in an advisory capacity, she moved on to co-found a truly revolutionary organization in Three Square that would become a model for food bank organizations across the country. Conceived at her dining room table, Three Square (as in three square meals a day) reinvented the food bank concept by approaching previously untapped sources, such as grocery stores and hotel chains. With the help of these businesses, she was able to take food that otherwise would have been wasted and used it to feed the estimated 210,000 Las Vegas residents that do not get enough to eat.

Just five short years after conception, Three Square now distributes 16,000,000 meals a year through 600 partner programs.

It was through Julie Murray’s fundraising acumen that Three Square was able to grow from a simple idea to the model for food banks nationwide.

Recently, she has taken on what may be her biggest challenge to date with the Moonridge Foundation, a consulting firm that partners charitable organizations with philanthropic donors in order to “get the biggest impact for their philanthropic giving.” Murray understands that to be truly effective, a charity doesn’t just need money or volunteers, but a passionate partnership between those who do the daily work of change and those capable of funding it. Murray even went so far as to suggest that if philanthropists begin to look at their giving as an investment, the rewards will be greater with a monetary outlay that will have a more positive impact on their communities.
That is what it is truly all about. If a sense of community can be built where we all feel like we are home then we may all find ourselves inspired. “It has been difficult in Vegas to build a culture of community,” Murray says. There are few longtime res

When I ask her about her proudest achievement thus far she immediately says her children. “When somebody tells you that your children are compassionate, smart human beings it is difficult not to feel proud,” Murray says. This proves one of Murray’s core beliefs, that if you start small and can inspire just one other person to make a difference, the world will grow better.idents, and many people come and go without ever really calling Vegas home. If those who simply live here can come to call it home then the first step toward improving not only our city, but also our country and our world, will have been taken and our world will have been taken.

t is a surprise to no one that one of her core philosophies can best be described as pay it forward, and that she is particularly proud to see those she has helped do just that. “I recently ran into one of my Dreamers who started in the projects and now is on her way to be a teacher,” Murray tells me.


With the Moonridge Group, Julie Murray hopes to create new ways to connect and engage philanthropists to help solve the biggest social ills this country has. “Healthcare and education are the two biggest social problems we face today,” Murray told me.

“If you can give people the means to feed themselves and help keep them healthy, especially at an early age, then the problems of hunger and crime will be reduced.”

What makes her so good at her job is her deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all people. When children are hungry, lack medical care and have no access to education it damages not only the child, but also all of those around them. She is passionate about helping to create systems that will ensure that these problems disappear one small, inspired step at a time.

“Just do one thing,” Murray tells me. “Whether it is volunteering an hour to feed the hungry or a million dollars to help build a school, we are all capable of inspiring others.”

Good Deeds: VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE

Sep 2012 Article by: chris carney | Photography by: lucky wenzel

The amazing people that run charitable organizations all have the same major issue: lack of awareness. In a world where there is so much need, where there are so many worthy causes and deserving programs, the most difficult task facing these organizations is awareness.

It was this hurdle that Dr. Florence Jameson, founder and CEO of Volunteers in Medicine, stressed to me above all others. She didn’t focus on the crippling difficult organizational processes or the massive stress involved with acquiring funding or the heartbreak volunteers face when they realize how much still needs to be done. It was awareness. In a sea of amazing causes Dr. Jameson’s cites Volunteers in Medicine’s main problem is “making the public aware we are here.”

“Volunteers in Medicine is about bringing together two groups of people: the medically needy that desperately need access to healthcare, especially those with chronic illnesses, and those possessing the expertise and great desire to run a clinic.”

In January of 2010 the very first Volunteers in Medicine free clinic opened in Paradise Park in Southeast Las Vegas. Before then, this valley of nearly two million people was devoid of a place where the uninsured in desperate need of medical care could turn. “It is such a duh, a no brainer that every city needs a clinic like this one,” Dr. Jameson tells me. Before Volunteers in Medicine that type of clinic did not exist in Las Vegas. And before Volunteers in Medicine awareness of the need was also non-existent.

To make Las Vegas stand up and take notice, Volunteers in Medicine holds an annual Volunteers in Medicine Ball to raise both awareness and funding. “The Ball raises almost two thirds of our annual operational budget for the upcoming year,” explains Dr. Jameson. Without the Volunteers in Medicine Ball the clinic would have remained a wisp of a dream.

This year’s festivities will be held at The Palazzo on Saturday, Oct. 6. Not only does the Ball bring together those capable of giving with those who do the organization’s work, it is also a place to “honor three shining stars who work tirelessly to make an impact on health care in our community.”
The Community Service Honoree, Aurora Wong, is an attorney by trade who “leads the charge” of the HepBFree community outreach program that provides screenings, vaccinations and treatment to Asian Pacific Islanders who are at highest risk for the disease.

The Volunteerism Honoree is Mary Adler. Adler has been with Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada as a volunteer since its inception. As unit secretary for the clinic, Adler processes numerous patient assistance applications. “She is an all-round hero to the success of VMSN.”

This year’s Lifetime Achievement in Medicine will be awarded to Dr. Jerry Cade, an immunologist, currently serving as the Director of Viral Treatment Specialty Service at UMC. For over two decades, he’s been active in the Las Vegas community helping those affected with HIV/Aids. “When others were afraid to lend a hand, Dr. Cade was there.”

At Volunteers in Medicine “750 volunteers create a beautiful symphony of loving acts of kindness.” For Dr. Jameson awareness leads to action, both in the donation of desperately needed funds, as well as the volunteering of time, equipment, medications and skills.

I’ve been lucky enough to interview numerous influential people in the Las Vegas philanthropic community, and I have found the one trait they all share is gratitude. Dr. Jameson is an amazing, giving woman. At the end of our interview she thanked me—a simple journalist—for giving her my time. These astounding words of heartfelt gratitude truly bring home the main issue that organizations like Volunteers in Medicine face: awareness. Perhaps, in a small way this article will help to raise that awareness and inspire action.

 

Good Deeds: Warren Moon

By Chris Carney

For record setting quarterback legend Warren Moon, it has always been about dreams. He dreamed of playing quarterback in the NFL. He dreamed of one day joining the ranks of the legendary in the Hall of Fame. He dreamed of making something of himself. He dreamed of giving others the helping hand to do the same.

Now, dreams are not uncommon. We all have them. They come in different forms, take varied paths and result in wildly different returns. Some dreams fail due to lack of effort, some fail due to lack of ability, but most tragic are those that fail due to lack of opportunity.

To help bridge the gap and help give a boosting hand of opportunity to those without it, Moon and some of his business partners at Sports 1 Marketing created the Sports Dream Bowl. The annual event benefits the Urban Scholarship Fund that awards higher education scholarships for deserving kids who have demonstrated the character, dedication and ability to pursue their own dreams, but whose financial situation makes a higher education otherwise unlikely.

On June 22nd and 23rd the 12th Annual Sports Dream Bowl, a celebrity bowling tournament that occurs each year in Las Vegas, took over the hardwood at Texas Star Lanes at Texas Station in North Las Vegas and The Cosmopolitan to raise money for the Urban Scholarship Fund and to honor the students who won this year’s awards.

Proving his business acumen as well as a deep understanding of human nature, Moon set his sights on Las Vegas for the annual fundraising event. What better city to attract top name sports starts like rookie sensation quarterback Cam Newton, soon to be Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, sure handed wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and a host of other current and former NFL, NBA and movie and television actors?

“Las Vegas is an exciting place, with great restaurants, shows and clubs,” Moon stated, and is a natural draw for people at the top of their game.

The event also drew past scholarship winners who have gone on to highly successful careers, as engineers for top companies, highly successful real estate agents and even established a foundation that helps to fund other charitable foundations.

For Moon, the achievements of these past scholarship awardees are the most satisfying gift. For a man whose accomplishments include being one of only two men to have been inducted into both the NFL and Canadian Hall of Fame and who has gone on to a highly successful and influential post football career, these are high words of praise.

This year’s event celebrated the ten deserving kids who have proven their worth both through academic achievement and community involvement. Winners were awarded scholarship money to use at a higher learning institution of their choice.

“This year’s event was one of the most successful we’ve ever had,” said Moon. Moon believes in paying back those communities that give, and this year’s crop of deserving scholarship winners
feature four young people from the Las Vegas area.

The four young women from Las Vegas who were selected this year by Moon and his associates share many common traits. They all excelled at academics, were the recipients of numerous awards for community involvement, refused to let their own dreams be derailed by adversity and, in an application essay, all proved their dedication to improving the lives of those around them.

Ours is a world built on dreams and when people with the ability, drive and courage to pursue those dreams are given the assistance needed to achieve them we are all better off.

“I believe that those who have more than they need should help those in need,” Moon said. “I believe we should all pay it forward.” With the annual Sports Dream Bowl Warren Moon is doing just that.

Originally Published in the July 2012 Issue of Diamond Cake Magazine .

Mark Twain In Nevada

Mark Twain

The writer, curmudgeon, social commentator, and humorist we all know was born in Nevada.

By CHRIS CARNEY | November/December 2011

Photo:

In a very real way—tossed with a healthy dose of ironic hyperbole—Mark Twain, the writer, legendary curmudgeon, social commentator, and humorist—was born in Nevada. While it is a historical fact that Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, the nom de plume for the man many claim is the greatest of American authors was first used in February 1863 in Virginia City.
Clemens had come to Nevada to find his fortune, whether it came from silver, timber, or political largesse. Had these ventures not failed spectacularly, Mark Twain may never have been born, grown rich, become poor, and then grown rich once more. Nor would this country, which had no assurance of surviving the Civil War intact in his time, have been blessed with one of its defining voices. Many say that Twain represents the spirit of America in the 19th century. Without the individualistic, frontier spirit still embodied by Nevada, Clemens would be a mere historical footnote and Twain nothing but a glint in the muse’s eye.
While his youth spent in Hannibal, Missouri, as well as his oft-documented adventures in San Francisco, Connecticut, and in the larger world abroad, are well-told tales, Clemens’ time spent in Washoe, as the Nevada Territory was often referred to in those days, has strangely received far less attention. Like Athena bursting forth from Zeus full-grown, Twain emerged from the mind of Clemens in Nevada. Yet even in 1861, his destiny as the greatest of American writers was far from a certainty.
It was not the written word, but a need for freedom and wealth that brought Clemens to Nevada. While he claims to have published numerous letters during his time on the Mississippi, he was in no way a professional writer when he crested the hills into Carson City in 1861. That would come nearly a year later when he accepted a reporter position for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. For now, Clemens was running.
Back in St. Louis he had “somehow found himself” a member of an improvised militia known as the Marion Rangers. Unaffiliated with any official Confederate unit and stuck between his Southern heritage and a love of the Union, Clemens soon resigned citing that he was “incapacitated by fatigue through persistent retreating.” As it did with many Americans of his time, the Civil War refused to leave him to live his life. Under continued threat of conscription by both Union and Confederate forces due to his highly valuable skill as a riverboat pilot, Clemens felt the need to escape.
Fate, or luck, in the form of his older brother, Orion, stepped in and provided Clemens with just the opportunity he needed. Through connections with Lincoln’s cabinet, Orion had secured the prestigious position of Secretary of the Nevada Territory, under Tammany Hall politico Governor Nye. Orion, a notoriously honest man and terrible businessman, was in need of Clemens’ funds, and Clemens needed to get away.
Sam and Orion journeyed 20 days by stagecoach and arrived in “the insignificant village of Carson” City, a journey detailed in Twain’s travelogue/fictional narrative Roughing It. Sam was unimpressed with the 1,500-person mining provincial capital but believed that he would strike it big within three months and head back home laden with Nevada silver.
From September 1861 to April 1862, Clemens heartily undertook the backbreaking and laborious life of a miner and nearly claimed his long-sought-after wealth in a rich mine dubbed “Pride of Utah,” before losing the claim due to jumbled communication between he and his partner, Higbie, to whom he would later dedicate Roughing It. By April, the physical labor took its toll, and, as historian Fred Kaplan details in The Singular Mark Twain, “he took frequent opportunities to sharpen his poker skills, practice his penchant for swearing and cultivate a western swagger, including carrying a pistol, which he had no skill at using.” Wealth from a vein of silver seemed forever lost to Clemens.
Once more providence stepped in, and Clemens moved to Virginia City to replace an Enterprise reporter off to visit his family. The job paid $25 a week, hardly a fortune, but a job that sent 27-year-old Clemens on the road that would see him earn more wealth and fame than any silver mine could ever provide. Photo: Virginia City today
It was at the Enterprise that Clemens first took the pen name Mark Twain, from “the Mississippi leadman’s call meaning twelve feet.” In a town whose chief recreational activities were “drinking, card-playing and fighting,” (Kaplan, pg. 105) the pen name, inspired by fellow reporter Dan De Quille, offered Clemens some protection from the controversial, and often fictitious, claims made by Twain.
By 1863, Clemens and Twain had essentially become one man. Sam began referring to himself as Mark, and the mustache that would become his trademark first took root. While his reporting would most certainly not hold up under the rigors of modern-day journalistic ethics, his time at the Enterprise, coupled with Nevada’s individualistic nature, “were formative in his development as a writer and in the emergence of a distinctive personality.” (Kaplan pg. 108)
It was this distinctive personality that soon got him into life-threatening trouble when on May 21, 1864 he rashly challenged the editor of a rival paper to a duel. A man was not able to “thoroughly respect himself so long as he had not killed or crippled somebody in a duel or been killed or crippled in one himself,” Twain wrote. When the challenge was accepted, Twain, who was a notoriously inept shot, felt death staring down on him. He rose early the morning of the duel and spent time “in practicing with the revolver and finding out which end to level at the adversary.”
Despite extensive practice on a fence rail that was “to represent Mr. Laird…who was longer and thinner than a rail.” He missed every shot and was shown up by his second Stephen Gillis, who shot a bird dead at 30 yards.
Only subterfuge and luck allowed Twain to avoid the duel, as Mr. Laird arrived right at the moment while they were examining the dead bird and was told that Twain had made the shot. Mr. Laird flatly refused to duel and Twain “won.” His prize, and ours, was a long life well lived, replete with many successes and a few failures.
While the duel had been avoided, word came to Twain that he was to be the first victim of a newly passed anti-dueling law demanding a minimum two-year prison stay. Twain felt it was time to move on. Clemens had come to Nevada to find freedom and earn a fortune and now, to once again find freedom, he fled Nevada for San Francisco. From then to the years of his death in 1910, Twain found his fortune, lived as free as any man can, and became the most famous American of his generation.
Twain once described Nevada “as the damndest country under the sun,” and, while he spent less than three years here, it is a surety that without Nevada, Sam Clemens would never have become Mark Twain.
The Mark Twain Cultural Center at Incline Village
In Roughing It, Mark Twain details his first view of Lake Tahoe as “surely the fairest picture that the whole earth affords.” It is easy to appreciate Twain’s take on the wonders of Lake Tahoe. From the mirror sheen of the water to the crown of snow-capped peaks, Lake Tahoe is one of Nevada’s true treasures.
He charms the reader for several more pages before confessing, like a guilty child head hung low, to being the accidental architect of a hellish forest fire. “Within half an hour all before us was a tossing, blinding tempest of flame!” Twain wrote from the relative safety of a small canoe on the lake.
Twain and his cohorts watched for hours in horror. When the “crimson spirals” and “tangled network of red lava streams” had burned themselves out, untold acres of pristine woodlands had been destroyed in a “conflagration” of a “reflected hell.”
It is with an appropriate sense of irony that the Mark Twain Cultural Center at Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, may just be built upon a faint layer of ash, a geological reminder of the folly of man.
Within the modest building the Ghost of Mark Twain is kept alive in the person of McAvoy Layne. “It’s like being a Monday-through-Friday preacher, whose sermon, though not reverently pious, is fervently American,” Layne says.
Featuring readings form Twain’s works, the center transports us back with a puff of cigar smoke, the twist of a mustache, and a southern drawl to the very beginnings of Twain’s legend and is a unique celebration of a man who without question can lay claim to the title one of a kind.
CONTACT
The Mark Twain Cultural Center
760 Mays Blvd., Incline Village, NV 89451
marktwainculturalcenter.org
ghostoftwain.com
775-831-2820
Editor’s Note: The Mark Twain Cultural Center closed on December 30, 2011, citing financial factors.

Published in Nevada Magazine Nov/Dec 2011

The 10 Most Influential Acts in Las Vegas History

influential acts

These 10 entertainers have left—and some continue to leave—an indelible Las Vegas legacy.

By CHRIS CARNEY | January/February 2011

Photo: Joey Bishop, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin of The Rat Pack

Las Vegas has long been synonymous with great entertainment. From gambling to burlesque, magic to impersonation, Las Vegas has a long and steady history of producing laughter, smiles, and yelps of joy. By most measures, Las Vegas can claim Entertainment Capital of the World. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the city’s incorporation, Nevada Magazine has compiled a list of the 10 most influential acts in Las Vegas history—in no particular order but alphabetical. We have purposely chosen entertainers that span a wide range of styles, eras, and personalities so that readers can come away with a better understanding of the history, heart, and soul of this city in the desert.

Celine Dion
Celine Dion’s presence on this list may engender doubtful mutterings and irritated scowls from some Las Vegas purists who pine for the days of Old Vegas, but a short look at her domination of the Strip in the 2000s makes her influence undeniable.
In 2003, the Canadian songstress began a residency at Caesars Palace that would, over the next five years, gross a staggering sum and dominate the Vegas landscape. Not only did “A New Day” shoot the bar for Vegas shows into the upper atmosphere, it altered the way entertainers worldwide performed. To really entertain, Dion implied, performers needed an extravaganza of lights, dance, and sound.
It was in Las Vegas that she went from performer to entertainer, and on March 15, she returns to the Colosseum that Caesars originally built for her. Her legend is sure to grow.
Cirque du Soleil
Another relative newcomer to Las Vegas, Cirque Du Soleil has—from “Mystére,” through “O” and “Zumanity,” and culminating with the recent unveilings of The Beatles “LOVE” and “Viva Elvis”—come to dominate the Strip as no other entertainment entity has before.
From its humble street-performer origins in Montreal, Cirque has grown into an entertainment juggernaut with nearly $1 billion in yearly receipts. It has been estimated that on any given night, five percent of Vegas visitors attend a Cirque show.
The production company’s influence is so pervasive that visitors now plan trips to Vegas around Cirque, and the premiere of such a show draws a cavalcade of movie stars and other notables.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Some consider 1950s Las Vegas the city’s heyday. Sin City was edgy and hip, glamorous and hedonistic, and populated by mobsters and starlets. It was on the stage of the legendary Copa Room at the Sands where the hottest acts of the day performed. Few acts can be said to be more Vegas than the musical comedy duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Vegas made Martin and Lewis, then it broke them. In 1989, after decades of animosity, the original dynamic duo of the Strip reunited during one of Martin’s last run of shows. While other entertainers made more money, earned more fame, and had longer runs, Martin and Lewis can rightfully claim to be among Vegas’ founding icons.
Elvis
It is 1956, and 21-year-old Elvis Presley has just performed his first show on the Vegas Strip. Though it may be impossible to imagine today, Vegas pundits of the day dubbed the crooner a “bore.”
This kid from the South wouldn’t return to Vegas for 13 years, and when he did, it wasn’t to perform, but to film the hit movie, “Viva Las Vegas.” The town that had snubbed him came to adore him as it adopted the film’s theme song as its own.
Vegas embraced Elvis, and he repaid that love with more than 800 straight performances at The International in the 1970s. Legend has it that when Elvis was in Las Vegas, half of the visitors to the city took in his show. That makes Elvis Presley not only the King of Rock, but also the King of Vegas.
Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack
Call it the “swingers effect,” but there is something about Frank Sinatra that transcends generations. Old Blue Eyes is as cool, suave, and hip today as he was in the 1960s when he was The Rat Pack’s Chairman of the Board.
All the rave when they descended on Las Vegas in 1960 to film “Oceans 11,” The Rat Pack would grab a hold of Las Vegas and not let go for the better part of a decade.
Comprised of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, The Rat Pack was famous for impromptu guest appearances at each other’s gigs. So beloved were these shows that fans would flock to Vegas, often sleeping in their cars, just to catch one of their performances.
Les Folies Bergère
No act in the history of Vegas has been more responsible for popularizing the naughty nickname Sin City than “Les Folies Bergère.” This infamous burlesque show, wherein dozens of beautiful, topless women pranced and preened onstage, may seem tame today, but in the late ’50s, during the height of the Red Scare, it truly made the “better folk” of the country see crimson.
Imported from Paris two years after the Tropicana opened its doors in 1957, “Les Folies Bergère” was, until its sad demise in 2009, the longest continually running show in Vegas history. It titillated, embarrassed, and opened the minds of millions. No trip to Vegas was complete without a visit with these high-stepping beauties.
Liberace
Glitz, glitter, and gaudy costumes have long been a staple of Las Vegas, but no entertainer in the city’s history of flamboyant excesses comes close to matching Liberace for sheer extravagance.
Revered as Mr. Showmanship, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world from 1950 to 1970. His residencies at Riviera and later the Hilton set the bar for the city’s future performers.
Despite critics’ harsh evaluations of his musical ability, fans adored the over-the-top performer. He played for President Harry Truman, Queen Elizabeth II, and millions of fans worldwide all while dressed in costumes so garish as to make a matador blush.
While the world seems to have moved on—Las Vegas’ Liberace Museum closed in October, and Liberace impersonators have joined the endangered species list—his indelible influence can be seen on stages across the world.
Merv Griffin
By the time Merv Griffin came to Las Vegas, first in the 1960s and permanently from 1970 into the 1980s, his singing and acting careers had become dim memories. His mark on Vegas would be made in other ways.
One of the first media moguls, Griffin’s résumé shames others who claim the title. Among his brainchildren were “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune,” and “The Merv Griffin Show.”
At the height of his popularity, Griffin brought his talk show to Caesars Palace, where a rotating stable of Vegas notables became frequent guests. These daily visits into the homes of millions created a fascination among Middle Americans for all things Vegas, and tourism to the city soared. Other entertainers may have dominated the box office, but without Griffin, their showrooms and wallets would have been a lot emptier.
Siegfried and Roy
Say the words entertainment and Las Vegas, and invariably images of Siegfried and Roy and their magnificent white tigers dominate the imagination. While other legends can lay claim to the nicknames the Chairman, The King, or Mr. Las Vegas, few can compete with this magician duo’s longevity, popularity, and influence.
These German born émigrés were an inseparable team for 50 years, performed 5,750 shows together, and in 2000 were a notch below Steven Spielberg as the ninth highest-paid celebrities.
Siegfried and Roy seemed eternal until that fateful day of October 3, 2003, when their tiger, Montecore, attacked Roy onstage. Miraculously, Roy survived. In 2009, the duo performed one last time, capping a career unlike any Vegas has ever seen, or will likely see again.
Wayne Newton
Only one man has earned the nickname Mr. Las Vegas. And that man is the incomparable Wayne Newton.
Best known for his hit “Danke Schoen,” Newton has entertained millions from many generations. From the time he first stepped onto a Vegas stage at age 16 until today, nobody has performed more times than Newton. Truth be told, with 30,000 solo performances to his name, it is unlikely that any entertainer will ever come close to surpassing him.
So iconic a figure is he to the culture of Las Vegas that the city named the road serving McCarron International Airport after him

HONORABLE MENTION
Numerous deserving entertainers were invariably left off this list. Here are a few close calls that deserve a shout out:
Cher
Clint Holmes
Danny Gans
Don Rickles
Lance Burton
Penn and Teller
Tom Jones
Tony Bennett

LASTING LEGACIES
Although most of these icons are no longer performing, their spirit lives on in Las Vegas in these attractions and shows:
Big Elvis—Bill’s Gambling Hall & Saloon
“The King” starring Trent Carlini—Hilton
“The King Lives!”—Hooters
“Liberace Music & Memories”—Saxe Theater
“The Rat Pack is Back”—Plaza Hotel
“Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show”—Riviera
Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat—The Mirage
“Sinatra Dance With Me”—Wynn Las Vegas
“Viva Elvis” by Cirque du Soleil—Aria Resort

Elvis impersonator Trent Carlini currently performs nightly (dark Tuesday) at the Las Vegas Hilton.

A Hauntingly Ghoul Time

Circus Circus 7 p.m.-midnight Oct. 10, 14-17, 21-24 • 28-31, $34.95, $49.95 VIP express pass. 702.794.3939

Fright Dome transforms theme park into supernatural spectacle

By Chris Carney

Las Vegas has long been known for doing things better than everyone else. Spend some time in the desert city and you’ll likely gamble in one of the most luxurious poker rooms on the planet, enjoy a juicy steak prepared by one of the world’s best chefs or rest your head on a Egyptian cotton pillow at one of the world’s largest hotels.

With its background in great shows and extravagant sets, it is little wonder that the annual extravaganza known as Fright Dome continues to rank among the scariest Halloween attractions in the nation.

Housed in the Adventuredome theme park at Circus Circus, Fright Dome first opened in 1993 and has terrified and entertained thrill seekers ever since. Upwards of 60,000 souls venture through Fright Dome each year, seeking to be scared to near death by macabre villains from the worst nightmares that film and literature have to offer.

The brainchild of entrepreneur and businessman Jason Egan, Fright Dome has surged to ever-increasing heights of terror, while employing upwards of 300 actors to ply their talents.
Fright Dome’s blood, gore and creepy theme music can turn what may be the most kid-friendly place on the Strip into a chill fest that will continue to infect dreams and engender nightmares long after visitors head home.

Even those who have patronized the Adventuredome will be hard pressed to see the junior-friendly Frog Hopper ride or airplane carousel of the Thunderbirds ride underneath the layers of fright at the “Hillbilly Hell” or Saw-themed attractions.

In some ways, Fright Dome simply zeroes in on one of the primal emotions that many Vegas gamblers feel every time they hit the casino. Wait the few seconds that become hours as your dealer reveals the card that will make or break your blackjack, or stare across the table at a poker fiend you just know is bluffing, maybe, and you’ll know the heart-stopping, sweat-inducing fear-turned-thrill that has long made them question that high limit poker lounge.

Featuring five haunted houses including My Bloody Valentine, the previously mentioned Saw and the all new zombie-inspired Flesh Feast, Fright Dome dredges fears from the roots of our unconscious.
Live shows top off the entire experience. Merlin Award-winning magician Dixie Dooley, whose mystical illusions have wowed Las Vegas for more than 30 years, takes a haunted twist. Marilyn Manson double Dan Sperry, the Anti-Conjurer, combines the surreal, the macabre and the just plain odd into an extravaganza that was born for this time of year. Finish the evening off with a visit to Roby Cody, whose devolutions into the odd just may make him the coolest magician on Earth.

If you’re looking for anything gory, twisted and terrifying, take a jaunt over to Fright Dome, and pray that you escape with soul and sanity intact.

Comedy Without Shame: No topic is taboo for Chelsea Handler

By Chris Carney


It would be far too easy, and quite condescending, to suggest that Chelsea Handler is a man trapped in a woman’s body. Sure her humor is crass, filled with vulgarities and topics traditionally associated with men on a guy’s night out. She blatantly professes her numerous sexual conquests in a manner that requires a high five from her nearest bro. She even relishes a deep affection for drinking and other habits traditionally deemed unladylike. Yet, none of these “manly” traits take away from her inherent femininity and womanly appeal. In fact, these traits combine, like a well-portioned cocktail, to make Handler one of the coolest chicks on the planet.

Women love her. Men want to be her. Women and men alike want to be with her. Handler defines the term “Renaissance woman,” even though she’d likely berate you for calling her such while sipping on the dirty martini she stole from you.

Raised in Livingston, N.J., Handler is the youngest of six children parented by a Jewish father and a Mormon mother. This melding of cultural and religious influences birthed a unique worldview that is both at odds with tradition and all inclusive of it. No topic is immune to her sarcastic rants, visceral diatribes and self-deprecating banter.

Handler began her professional life on the comedy circuit that has introduced us to some of America’s funniest people. From there she made the rounds on shows such as Girls Behaving Badly, The Tonight Show and The View. She became so sought after that she was able to turn down a gig on Dancing With the Stars. Her memoir, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands brought her national acclaim. Her second book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, secured her fame. The books, coupled with her top-rated E! show, Chelsea Lately, have pushed her onto the A-list. She even won a Bravo A-List Award to prove it.

It is her consistently hilarious skewering of celebrity culture, current events and general nonsense on Chelsea Lately that has cemented her place as a dominant force in late-night television, a realm traditionally dominated by the men she so ably manipulates.

Is it any wonder that America is fascinated with Handler? In an age where equality is deemed to be a given, why do her antics upset some and thrill others? Perhaps because she exposes a hidden truth, that despite our progress there are still avenues to be explored and stereotypes to be torn down.
No one seems more capable of shining the light on these hidden areas of modern-day life than the woman who once said, “I think we can all agree that sleeping around is a great way to meet people.”

Beginning to Fly: Vampire Weekend’s rapid ascent powered by multifarious inspiration

By Chris Carney
Formed in 2006 while expanding their minds at Columbia University, Vampire Weekend took their name from a short film made by singer Ezra Koenig. While the film appears clunky, amateurish and typical of college-made films, the band it helped spawn defies easy classification.
Heavily influenced by African pop music and American classical, Vampire Weekend’s sound is nearly impossible to categorize. Each measurement, opinion or label attached is quickly exposed as unfit or insufficiently wide.
Referring to their sound as “Upper West Side Soweto,” after the Johannesburg neighborhood, the band inspires emotions that run the gamut from happy to odd to bewildered. Listen to their self-titled debut and you just may feel like wrapping yourself in a tiger-print Snuggie while sipping some West African coffee.

Despite, or perhaps because of, their oddly varied influences, Vampire Weekend has been lauded with accolades—Spin named them the Best New Band of 2008 even before their debut hit the shelves. Christian Lander, infamous for his website Stuff White People Like, dubbed them the “whitest band” and Australian music magazine Triple J included four songs from their debut in their Top 100 for 2008.

Despite their sudden fame, the boys of Vampire Weekend haven’t let their accomplishments cloud them. Their second album, Contra, surged to the top of the Billboard charts, and just like that, they had gone from an obscure indie foursome to serving as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. They were now a band everybody either knew, wanted to know or was purposely ignoring with a “too cool for school” attitude.

Everyone has friends that wanted to hate Vampire Weekend, just as they’d previously done with fantasy football, Facebook and Pandora. One wonders just how long it’ll take before their iPods are blaring the joyous pop music of these Ivy League grads.

Vocalist Ezra Koenig may just be a reincarnation of Buddy Holly. His quick, staccato vocals and adrenaline-filled delivery are ultra-reminiscent of the horn-rimmed spectacled legend of the ’60s.
Like Holly, Vampire Weekend has reached the peak of fame very quickly and to date the burden of fame has been well worn. They’ve toured extensively with the likes of the Shins, are managed by the same group that helped the White Stripes dominate the world and have been featured in the Will Ferrell movie Step Brothers, the BBC show The Inbetweeners and on both Guitar Hero 5 and LEGO Rock Band.

Yes, Vampire Weekend has made it. They’ve crested the charts, become the darlings of the indie music crowd and likely been proposed to by innumerable hipster girls in every town they’ve performed in.
Not at all bad for four guys from the right side of the tracks whose musical career started with a humorous hip-hop band. Fans worldwide await their next push towards fame and fortune. Come along for the ride.

Five Reasons Why Fantasy Football is Dungeons and Dragons for Sports Nerds

Fantasy Football is now played by nearly 25 million Americans according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Fantasy football owners gather with like-minded comrades spending upwards of half a day “drafting” imaginary teams that they obsess over for the rest of the year.  The ultimate dream of any fantasy football owner is to end the year as champion, hoist a cheap plastic trophy and revel in the accolades and jibes of their friends.

What they don’t realize is that they have become what they once mocked. What they don’t see is that fantasy football is really just Dungeons & Dragons (or World of Warcraft for you younger folks) for sports nerds. Doubt this theory? Here are five reasons why this theory will soon be accepted as law.

Both Are Obsessed with “Imaginary Beings.”

Okay, I hear what you’re saying. NFL players are real people and a Mind Flayer is the mental offspring of D&D creator Gary Gygax the long reigning king of all nerds.  While any rational being knows fantasy from reality, your average fantasy footballer has as much chance of meeting Arian Foster as they do a Mind Flayer and at least  Mind Flayer would show interest in meeting you, if only with the intent of slurping your brain out of your skull.

Yet this does not prevent a fantasy footballer from reveling in Foster’s 140 yard and two TD torching on Sunday. The bylaws of the man code state that this feat of skill allows the Foster owner to gloat and temporarily claim Alpha Male status. 

Both Have Insider Lingo That Outsiders Don’t Understand.

PPR, HP, IDP and DMG are just a few of the innumerable acronyms that fill the hallowed halls (and alternate worlds) of fantasy football and Dungeons & Dragons. This lingo becomes like a second language to the initiated members of these subcultures.  They converse, often at socially inappropriate volumes, around water coolers and in comic books shops with all the intensity of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

These secret languages act as a bonding device and make devotees feel that they are part of a bigger picture that may or may not have designs of world domination. Tread in these realms without this secret knowledge at great risk.

Both Allow Participants to Vicariously Live Like Action Heroes.

Your average Dungeons & Dragons players were the outsiders who found in the imaginary sword and sorcery roleplaying game a place where they could be the well-muscled hero who saved the princess. In many cases this is the only time these dice wielding heroes get the girl.

Fantasy footballers  however, may once have been star athletes, but time has taken its toll and the only way they can taste the glory of old is to dominate their fantasy football league. They rest beer cans on well-developed guts while high fiving friends when Calvin Johnson crushes that poor defensive back enroute to yet another TD. And like Al Bundy they may exhaustively retell their moment of glory story before slipping their hand into the waist band.

Both Pastimes Call for Congregating in Caves.

Dungeons & Dragons players often find themselves descending into caves in pursuit of treasure. In the deep bowels of the earth they are forced to battle everything from trolls to giant spiders. If they have chosen well then they will come out of the cave with experience, riches and perhaps a +1 mace.

Fantasy football drafts also occur in caves. Dubbed man caves, they are most often the one room in the house that the wives have allowed them to “decorate” as they please. Man caves are usually in basements and are often dingy, damp and inhabited (at least in the case of my fantasy football draft) by at least one hairy beast with suspect hygiene that could legitimately be mistaken for a troll. If players perform their task well they will emerge from the cave with the elixir of a great fantasy football team.

Both Have Online Communities Dedicated to Their Widows.

Like Dungeons & Dragons ( and World of Warcraft), fantasy football can quickly grow from hobby to obsession, which has led to the recent proliferation of websites and online support groups dedicated to offering solace and advice to the women who get left behind.

Birthdays are missed. Anniversaries are forgotten. These WoW widows and Fantasy football widows often fail to understand the greatness to which their husbands strive and in fits of anger often banish them to their man caves, to live among the filth and the squalor. 

Chris Carney is a freelance writer and longtime fantasy football fanatic. He is a proud, former Dungeon Master and earned many guffaws and a few angry comments when he first suggested this theory at his last fantasy draft, which true to form was held in a dingy man cave. 
 
Originally Published in the August 2010 Issue of Drink Magazine.

Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz: Battle Born

By Chris Carney

Boxing and Las Vegas have long been comfy bedmates. When Las Vegas was still in its infancy, boxing was king, and in the decades since, boxing’s presence has continued a steady affair.

So it shocks nobody that the rematch of one of the best fights of the year comes to the ring at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz was a furious nine-round battle in 2009 that left 26-year-old Diaz bleeding and dazed on the canvas.

Now Diaz seeks redemption against the decade older Marquez. It’s youth vs. legacy—and what a fight it will be. Dubbed as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, Mexican-born Marquez (pictured fighting Joel Casamayor in 2008) has fought Manny Pacquiao, been slated to battle Floyd Mayweather and, if he beats Diaz again, will go against up-and-coming phenom Michael Katsidis.

Since being taken down, Diaz has trained for redemption, but much more rests on his shoulders in this rematch. A win and Diaz can claim stardom. A loss and he may just enter the ranks of the almost-were. Marquez vs. Diaz II ups the drama, the sweat and the power.

 http://lasvegasmagazine.com/

Lyle Lovett: Large and In Charge

By Chris Carney

Lyle Lovett may not be the most famous country singer ever, but his longevity and influence have far outstripped short-lived fame. Born in Klein, Texas, where he resides today, Lovett took to music early in life and began his career writing for others. It wasn’t until 1986 that he began to focus on his own music with the release of his self-titled debut.

Since then he’s recorded 14 albums, won four Grammys and began an acting career. It was his friendship with legendary film director Robert Altman that led not only to his second job, but also to a much-publicized, if short-lived, marriage to actress Julia Roberts.

Since then Lovett, who always seems to operate better personally and professionally outside the spotlight, has quietly continued to influence an entire generation of musicians. His life has unfolded at his pace and by his design, and it is these values that he’ll showcase when he brings his Large Band to Vegas.

http://lasvegasmagazine.com

The Real Tracy Morgan

By Chris Carney

“So, here’s some advice I wish I woulda got when I was your age: live every week like it’s Shark Week.” So says Tracy Jordan, the fictional star of a fictional variety show on NBC’s hit sitcom 30 Rock. The Emmy-nominated actor who delivered this suspect advice is Tracy Morgan, and despite the initial sense of absurdity engendered by the statement, it holds a core of wisdom shared by character and actor alike.

This is not to suggest that Tracy Jordan is a wise man. In truth he is a bit of a buffoon, who has lost touch with the world that made him famous. Thankfully, even with numerous successes and accolades, Tracy Morgan has never lost sight of the reasons he does what he does.

 “It’s all about family for me,” says Morgan. “My kids and my family keep me grounded. Everything I do is for them.”

This dedication to family is not just lip service. It is both the heart of his success and the barometer that keeps him in check. Born in the heart of what he calls Ghetto, USA, the Bedford—Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in 1968, Tracy’s early life was surrounded by a combination of love and violence.

The second of four children, Tracy, known as Tray to his family and friends, was named after a red headed Irish army buddy of his father Jimmy Morgan. Jimmy met Tracy on an Army transport en route to Vietnam for the fi rst of what would be fi ve tours. Tracy and Jimmy hit it off. They were two men from very different backgrounds whose lives had crossed, forever changing both of them. For Jimmy, Vietnam would lead to a heroin addiction, night Terrors, and AIDS. For Tracy, Vietnam lasted a mere 24 hours before a land mine ended his life.

Like many kids of the 80s, Tracy is the child of divorce. While Jimmy and Tracy’s mother, Alicia, loved each other, Jimmy’s heroin addiction became a very real danger to the children. The resultant split created a great and lasting anger in young Tracy. He eventually learned to turn the anger into a fierce dedication to comedy. A craft he deems “his bulletproof vest,” and credits with literally saving his life.

In his book, I Am the New Black, Tracy states he does not want our sympathy. “I don’t feel like any kind of hero. I’m not God’s gift, but my life wasn’t dumb luck either. I made a series of choices—some bad, most good—that led me here.”

Here is a pretty damn good place for Tracy Morgan these days. He is the star of the hit sitcom 30 Rock, he is a Golden Globe winner, an Emmy nominee and recently returned to host an episode of his old stomping grounds Saturday Night Live. He’s starred in several movies, including Cop Out with Bruce Willis and the recent comedy gem Death at a Funeral, sharing the screen with his old buddy and mentor Martin Lawrence.

He has finally taken control of his health, which was severely damaged by years of neglect and ignorance of his diabetic condition. He’s even found love once again after a recent divorce from long time wife Sabina. Indeed, here is pretty good for Tracy Morgan.

Enroute to his success Tracy learned and relearned a most important lesson. “Don’t believe the hype,” his father told him. “Everyone is going to tell you you’re great until you’re not great. Until the day you let them down. And on that day they’ll hate you.” Despite the accolades, the success, the wealth, Tracy remains humble and has finally become grounded.

Tracy’s success was never a guarantee and even a cursory examination of his life suggests it may just be a miracle. As a young man Tracy was on a path all to familiar to many poor African American men. Few opportunities and a deep-rooted anger combined with the need to be a “baller” and Tracy soon found himself dealing on the street. Yet even then comedy was his defense mechanism and his primary method of survival. Starting with weed and eventually moving on to the new plague known as crack, Tracy used and developed his comedic skills on the street.

 “I took to crack like it was an open mic night, and I was pretty good at it. I had people laughing, even when they were jonesing for a fix. It was like comedy—they were paying me for a good time.”

But soon the luster of the life began to tarnish. One night his buddy Spoon, who Tracy says was ”funnier than I,” was murdered. By sheer luck Tracy was with a girl. Otherwise, he says, “I’d probably be dead right now.” Spoon’s death was the reality check Tracy needed. If he stayed on the streets, they would kill him, probably sooner than later.

While Spoon died, Tracy kept his memory alive in puppet form as Spoonie Love on Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla’s Crank Yankers. This was just one of numerous characters, comedy bits and skits Tracy dredged up from his childhood and it set the stage for his variety of very open and extremely personal style of comedy.

It was about this time, with the support of his first love Sabina, that he made the choice that would eventually lead him down the road of fame and fortune. He decided to become a stand up comedian. While most wives would demand a stable income from their man, Sabina believed in Tracy and was the rock that pushed him.

“I’ve got you,” Sabina told him,” but you’ve got to keep at this no matter how hard it gets. You’ve got to keep at it until you make something of yourself.” Tracy started appearing at open mic nights and comedy clubs across the Bronx. Eventually he landed a gig at the Apollo, the legendary comedy club in Harlem responsible for launching innumerable careers.

From there he heard riotous laughter and choruses of boos on Uptown Comedy Club and the Def Comedy Jam, where he met Martin Lawrence.This chance encounter led to Tracy’s first sitcom gig, as Hustle Man on the hit sitcom Martin.

Eventually Saturday Night Live came calling. For most comedians, this would seem to be the pinnacle, the dream job, the nadir, but Tracy, in an uncharacteristic display of insecurity and nervousness was resistant.

“I can’t do it,” he told his agent Barry Katz. “That’s where Eddie [Murphy] came from. I can’t go up to Eddie’s house. No way, I can’t do it. I’m not good enough, man.” Yet, Barry, like Sabina before him, did believe and in a classic bit of subterfuge told Tracy that the SNL producers were begging to see him. In truth Barry had to bludgeon the producers into giving Tracy his shot. From their perspective it was a long shot indeed.

Terrified, Tracy took that fear and used it. He took his anger and used it. Today his audition tape can be seen by the world on the Saturday Night Live: The Best of Tracy Morgan DVD. While he was a bit huskier, a bit more disheveled, he was, even at that early date, still very much Tracy Morgan.

He did a bit of Biscuit, the propeller beenie topped kid that had long been a classic Tracy Morgan character. “Biscuit is me as a kid. He’s the character most like the real me out of all that I do.” The producers liked what they saw and Tracy became an increasingly important fixture on SNL for the next seven seasons. During these years Tracy immortalized characters as diverse as Brian Fellow, the gay, self-centered and paranoid host of an animal talk show, Dominican Lou, the overzealous building super based on a guy Tracy knew from his days in the Bronx and pervy, folk singing space adventurer Astronaut Jones.

It was during these years that he and soon-to-be SNL head writer Tina Fey really hit it off. “She’s my sister, Tina Fey,” Tracy says. “Tina understands who I am as a person and what my strengths and weaknesses are as an actor and a comedian more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Though he couldn’t have known it at the time, this camaraderie would eventually lead him to the greatest role of his life. As is often the case in the entertainment business, as in life, Tracy needed to fall before he could climb to even greater heights. In 2003, well into his seventh year on SNL Tracy decided to leave the show and move on. The decision wasn’t easy. SNL was lucrative, it was a sure thing, but Tracy didn’t want to be the one who held on too long. It was ultimately the prompting of his younger sister Asia that pushed him to take the leap. “You’ve got to promise me something,” Asia told Tracy. “ Don’t be there [SNL] too long. Keep challenging yourself and try new things. Don’t get too comfortable.”

As luck would have it he didn’t have to wait to long for the next new thing. NBC commissioned The Tracy Morgan Show, which Tracy originally envisioned as a Sanford and Son meets All in the Family with stories and characters based on Tracy’s childhood. The producers changed the show into a modern day Cosby Show that limped through one lackluster season and ultimately died a mostly unseen death. “In the end the show that aired wasn’t even my show anymore,” Tracy laments.

After his show was cancelled Tracy began to extensively tour once again, and as the road began to take control his personal issues came to the fore. Alcoholism, loneliness and frequent appearances by his dark side alter ego he dubbed Chico Divine started to damage him in subtle yet serious ways. Chico was fun, crazy and was slowly killing Tracy. Tracy and Sabina began having the issues that would eventually lead to their divorce. He talks about it freely. “Once that love turns, believe me, you’re done,” Tracy writes. “When a good woman’s love goes cold, it never comes back.”

It was about this time, when Tracy was at his lowest, that his old friend Tina Fey offered him a hand up. What a hand it would turn out to be. Tracy Jordan, the character on 30 Rock that would earn Tracy Morgan an Emmy nomination was hand crafted for him. Tina Fey has said that “Tracy Jordan is Tracy Morgan if Tracy Morgan was insane.” One wonders if she knew Tracy’s current state of mind when she made the offer.

Tracy Morgan has pushed through the bad and the good to surface a better man, a better father and a better actor and comedian. By any measuring stick his life can be deemed a triumph. He’s even returned to the comedy circuit that gave him his start and almost ended his career, with an upcoming show at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas June 5th.

So take Tracy Jordan’s advice and live every week like it’s Shark Week. When your opportunity comes a knocking, take it. Do everything all the way. Learn from the past, but look to the future. Keep your family close and never miss a chance at reconciliation, because in this crazy world of ours you never know when you’ll get another chance. There are sharks around every corner, and when they strike nobody can help you, except you.

Tracy Morgan has lived his life by this mantra. It has led him to never be satisfied, never stop working and even though he has achieved more than he could have ever dreamed as a kid in the Bronx, he remains forever hungry, forever unsatisfied. For our sakes, let us hope that he always remains so.

Published in Hard Rock Hotel Magazine Summer 2010

Cheap Trick: Never Surrender

Sgt. Pepper Live is the latest chapter to Cheap Trick’s enduring legacy
By Chris Carney

There is a long held maxim in the music world that the truly great bands make their mark on the stage and not in the studio. Whether it was the operatic crescendo of The Who, the smoke and grime haze of the Grateful Dead or the present-day masters of mass musical hypnosis, My Morning Jacket, every truly great band killed it live.

Perhaps more than any other band, American rockers Cheap Trick owe their career to their raucous, humorous, adrenaline-pulsing live shows. Formed in Rockford, Ill., in 1975, Cheap Trick toured the numerous bowling alleys, dive bars and warehouses throughout the Midwest. These shows led Epic Records’ Jack Douglas to sign them, after the prolific producer had seen them perform in Wisconsin, perhaps between strikes of the bowling ball. In 1977, they released their critically lauded but commercial dud self-titled debut. Their next two albums, In Color and Heaven Tonight, also failed to earn them a huge American following, despite featuring future hits “Surrender” and “I Want You to Want Me.” Cheap Trick had taken its three swings at stardom and a return to the well-worn bench of the never-were seemed imminent.

Then something strange happened. Japan came calling. While Cheap Trick had failed to muster the legions of fans they would soon be able to lay claim to in the United States, the Japanese had made all three albums gold records. In reward Cheap Trick traversed the ring of fire and filmed two of their shows at the Nippon Budokan, the Madison Square Garden of Tokyo. The resultant double live album, At Budokan, became the breakthrough Cheap Trick had prayed for.

At Budokan was the essence of what the Japanese knew and the world was about to learn: Cheap Trick rocked. Their mishmash of humor, melodic vocals and hard rock riffs worked brilliantly onstage. Robin Zander’s vocals melded perfectly with Rick Nielsen’s guitar cavorting, especially when Nielsen attacked his peacock feather-inspired five-neck guitar.

Cheap Trick had hit it big on the backs of a one-time import-made-multiplatinum domestic release. From there they toured ceaselessly, released a further 14 studio albums, At Budokan II and contributed to numerous soundtrack albums.

Cheap Trick has endured the decades when other bands have faded like background radiation from a dying star. They continue to innovate, entertain and occasionally illuminate.
For Cheap Trick it ends where it all began, on the stage. They return to Las Vegas together with the Sgt. Pepper Symphony Orchestra for a series of shows at Paris Las Vegas, June 22-23 & 25-26, to perform a complete live rendition of The Beatles’ legendary album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This full-length homage to this seminal 1967 record features a full orchestra, lights, sounds and video, plus some of the band’s very own hits. Cheap Trick is live once more. Rejoice.



http://lasvegasmagazine.com

One Republic: Independent Spirit

By Chris Carney

One Republic cheerfully straddles the border between the sovereign musical genres of pretty boy pop crooners and hipster alterna-rockers so well that their live shows at first suggest some kind of first contact scenario. Few other bands could draw teens unwittingly imitating their grandmother’s emotional outbursts at Elvis and tight pants-wearing twenty-something lads forcibly sulking their way towards counterculture credibility, all in one venue.

But One Republic has never been just another band. Owing much of their success to social media pioneer MySpace, One Republic earned a monstrous fan base that eventually led to them being signed by Mosley Records in 2006.

2007 saw the release of their debut album Dreaming Out Loud and its single “Apologize,” which would top the charts in sixteen countries via Timberland’s remix.

Often slotted into the Fray/Coldplay genre by fans and critics alike, One Republic insists that they are “not trying to be a British band.” Good thing for these Colorado Springs (that’s in the U.S.A, folks) natives, and a good thing for fans, too. Nothing screams “we’re irrelevant” more than one band actively trying to be another. Thankfully, One Republic remains true to their individual musical identity.

http://lasvegasmagazine.com

The Backstreet Boys: Smooth Moves

The Backstreet Boys still larger than life
By Chris Carney

Back in 1992, an unknown, overworked and likely underpaid worker at the Orlando Sentinel filed another entry in the crowded sea of classified ads. What couldn’t be known at the time was that this request for “Singers and Musicians” to audition would lead to one of the best-selling recording groups in history.
 

Thus, in the massive confines of a blimp hangar, was the boy band supergroup The Backstreet Boys spawned. Hundreds auditioned. Five were chosen. Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson, cousins from Lexington, Ken., joined Orlando, Fla., natives A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter, and the second age of the boy band began.
 

Their success was by no means a guarantee. America was still gripped in the throes of the grunge movement. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were kings, selling millions of albums, playing arenas and massive festivals like the groundbreaking Lollapalooza Tour and defining a musical generation.
 

It seemed that the Backstreet Boy venture was doomed to fail, but then something odd happened. Their first single, “We’ve Got It Goin’ On,” surged to the top of music charts across Europe. And the group did survive and begin to thrive, and then in 1997 their self-titled debut album hit the American music scene and would go on to sell 14 million copies in the U.S. alone. From then, their rise was nothing less than meteoric.
 

Few bands in American history can lay claim to the achievements of the Backstreet Boys. Starting from that newspaper ad, the Boys went on to sell 75 million albums worldwide, had 13 Billboard Top 40 hits and earned a staggering $533 million in concert receipts.
 

They singlehandedly brought the boy band back to the forefront of American pop music, a spot left dormant since their musical forefathers, The New Kids on the Block. And while the whims of the music buying, concert going public moved on, the Backstreet Boys eventually busied themselves with other ventures. Littrell has gone on to a successful Christian music career. Carter battled addiction, starred on a reality show and began to act in film. McLean and Dorough began a television career. Even the elder statesman Richardson has gone on to a modeling and composing career.
 

Throughout the ups and downs of their careers, legal wrangling with former manager Lou Pearlman and the departure of Richardson, the Backstreet Boys proved to be survivors. They surged to the top of the pop charts and held off would-be pretenders to the boy band crown, with the possible exception of brother band ‘N Sync.
 

They went on to survive the demise of teen pop in the early 2000s only to recently resurface with a new focus on live instruments, a more adult sensibility and a sixth album, Unbreakable, released in 2007. They began touring again, first internationally where they had scored their initial successes and now back home in the States.

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