City Cast Las Vegas
America’s No. 1 🥳 party city is …
July 5, 2023
Good morning! If, like me, you’re suffering a post-July 4 power-drain, here are a few July 5 inspiration prompts. On this day in 1996, scientists opened the door to a future of lab-grown lamb chops by cloning the sheep Dolly, while in 1937, Hormel introduced spam, which certainly tastes lab-grown. Back in 1687, Isaac Newton began publishing his laws of motion and gravity, and in 1994, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon. Big moves all.
Anyway, here’s a July 5 newsletter!
What's CITY Talking About?
🔥🌲 Remembering a Terrible Blaze
It’s been 10 years since the devastating Carpenter 1 fire in the Spring Mountains, which lasted eight weeks and scorched 28,000 acres. It didn’t burn any homes — but it made the residential areas vulnerable to flooding. Much of the burned habitat is recovering. Here’s a good look back. [Review-Journal]
🥳 Vegas Marketing Fail!
A new study concludes, rather embarrassingly, that Reno is the nation’s No. 1 “wildest city,” with Sin City lagging at No. 4. Reno?! The study “analyzed the rates of excessive drinking, marijuana and cocaine prevalence, the number of casinos, and the number of strip clubs.” The LVCVA ought to appeal this fiction all the way to the Supreme Court. [KSNV]
- Pairs nicely with: Our episode in which a Renoite and a Las Vegan debate which is the better city. Cocaine availability is not discussed. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]
🎬 LV Filmmakers Ponder Future
You’ll recall the big $190 million film-subsidies proposal that flopped in the Legislature. With that potential support gone, local filmmakers talk about how to keep the industry moving forward in Southern Nevada. [Las Vegas Weekly]
- Make it a double feature with: this podcast episode about the best Las Vegas movies. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]
Las Vegas Chatter
****
Grab Bag
Readers weigh in on water, fireworks, and the ways in which the past informs the present:
🚰 Myron: “If Nevada was really serious about water conservation, they should take a closer look at the 88 golf courses (that use close to 1 million gallons of water daily), and the water dependent crops that are grown here.”
🧨 Brian R: “A younger, more reckless version of myself nearly burned down my neighbor’s house with a bottle rocket. That was more than 30 years ago, and the last time I lit a firework.”
🐄 Cliff Rogers: “I remember sitting at the intersection of Washington and Rancho Road, on Washington facing east, waiting for the light to change. To the right of us was a huge open field. There were horses and cattle in that field ... I always think of that when I drive in that area.”
What To Do
📽️ ‘The City of Las Vegas: 1950s’ | Thursday | 7 p.m.
This documentary looks at the city’s postwar years: atomic testing, the rise of tourism, the wedding industry, and more. [Clark County Library, Flamingo and Maryland; free]
📽️ PUP Zenabi Instrumental Project | Thursday-Friday | 7 p.m.
Instrumental metal trio. (Check it out on Soundcloud.) [Thursday at the Whitney Library, Tropicana and Nellis; Friday at the West Charleston Library; free]
🧒 ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ | Friday | 4 p.m.
The San Francisco-based puppetry troupe Fratello Marionettes presents a family-friend production. [Green Valley Library, Henderson; free]
🎶 ‘Desert Boom’ | Friday-Saturday | Various times
Two-day festival of DJ’s and music, featuring Monk, plus vendors and more. [Jackpot Bar and Grill, Jones and Harmon; $15/day, $25 for both]
Today on City Cast
🤔 A Question You Might Not Have Thought to Ask
Why aren't there more feminist sex shops in Las Vegas? Plenty of reasons, from zoning laws to Sin City’s conservative attitudes toward sex. Author Lynn Comella (“Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure”), who chairs UNLV’s department of interdisciplinary, gender, and ethnic studies, joins co-host Vogue Robinson to explain.
Also: 🤭 A look at Las Vegas’s Erotic Heritage Museum. [City Cast las Vegas 🎧]
That’s all for today. I’ll be back tomorrow — who knows what July 6 might inspire!
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