Living Las Vegas

Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

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Top Vegas Hotels: Bellagio, Luxor, Rio

Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

Author Archive

Something More Spectacular: The Liberace Piano Competition

Everybody loved Liberace. He was the Glitter Man … Mr. Showmanship … the performer with the million-megawatt smile. And if we sometimes thought his virtuoso piano playing was a little hokey, a little over-the-top, well, it was all part of the rhinestone-studded package. But it turns out Liberace had a serious side, and the charitable foundation he established before his death now supports young pianists in both the classical and the spectacular traditions.

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Leapin’ Lizards, How This Place Has Grown!

Las Vegas began its big growth spurt back in the 1980s and 1990s, and it hasn’t let up in the new millennium. Since I moved here in late 1999, the place has grown by leaps and bounds. The building boom continues, the population has risen more than 45 percent, and the dirt road I took to the grocery store has become a six-lane asphalt thoroughfare. Why, we’ve even acquired a Komodo dragon. What next?

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Buy a Cactus, Kiss a Pig, Get Hitched

It isn’t every plant nursery that lets you take home a 12-foot saguaro, kiss a miniature pig, and get married in a chapel overlooking Red Rock Canyon. But Cactus Joe’s is no ordinary place. It’s worth the trip out to Blue Diamond to check out Joe Davidson’s enterprise, whether you need a cactus or not.

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Tales of a Tassel Dancer

She calls herself “Satan’s Angel, the Devil’s Own Mistress,” and her signature act involves flaming pasties. Now 60-something, Angel is a burlesque legend, and she had plenty of stories to tell at the “Miss Exotic World Pageant,” held earlier this month at the Palms.

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Barking Up the Money Tree

Animal shelters everywhere struggle to provide humanely for the creatures in their care. Sometimes they have more animals in their cages than they have money in the bank. But six years ago, animal lovers in Las Vegas came up with a great idea: Showcase some of those sweet mutts in a bona fide dog show, and then auction them off to raise money for the local shelter. The event is called “Best in Show” and it’s a doggone winner.

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