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Letters: Best of the City

Brumby
Photo courtesy of Brumby

1. Hey, everyone, it’s a guy from Brumby! Reading Desert Companion! He’s in a picture on Facebook, reading our February edition — “ Best of the City,” though surely you haven’t forgotten because how could you? “Brumby is the ‘best local band’ in Las Vegas, according to  Desert Companion’s readers’ poll, and our mothers,” Brumby’s page burbled. (“Your mothers are right,” replied a woman named Pamela, totally failing to acknowledge the good taste of DC readers in her celebratory exclamation.)

You know who else won big in a music category? You do if you read the blog at vegasentertainmentlawyer.com: “A big congratulations to Las Vegas’ own Jesse Pino, who was recently voted ‘best singer-songwriter’ by Desert Companion magazine,” the blogger wrote, sounding as though he couldn’t agree with this designation more. “I couldn’t agree with this designation more,” he wrote. And we agree with his agreement, in a non-legally binding way.

Likewise, if you noticed a slight flush to Mother Nature’s cheeks, it, too, involves the Best of the City issue. “Your Southern Nevada state parks are blushing today,” says the Facebook page of Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, joyfully anthropomorphizing. “Three of us were listed in the  Desert Companion magazine 2016 Best of the City list that came out this week!” (The Fire Canyon hike at Valley of Fire was voted best advanced hike; Beaver Dam was named best place to get away from it all; and Spring Mountain Ranch is best outdoors social media portal.) Tell the parks we said “Congrats.”

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Some read Best of the City as it is; others read Best of the City as it could be. Among the latter is Ken Person, who has his own best to suggest. “I was just wondering if you or the staff had ever been to Baobab Stage in Town Square,” Person emails. “Community theater at its best.” He goes on to applaud the owner, the acts, the affordable ticket prices — and he’s no mere shill. “I have no ties to this, no interest in it other than my personal enjoyment. I just feel it is worth promoting.” Thanks for the heads up, Ken!

But if we had to hand out an award for the best social media response, it just might go to a Ms. Johnson on the Neon Museum’s Facebook page, reacting to the museum’s award for best historical attraction: “I read it ‘best horizontal,’ lol.’” Ahem. That sounds like a different magazine entirely.

 

2. If much of the February issue was devoted to enumerating the best of the city, we also devoted space to a development likely to be the opposite: the purchase of the Review-Journal by Sheldon Adelson’s family. The premise of Andrew Kiraly’s piece is that the paper, as we’ve known it, is dead. Reader Carol Wagers, a subscriber to the paper since she moved here in 1964, sadly agrees:

“Your analysis is right on,” she wrote. And she’s taken action: “I cancelled my subscription to the paper as soon as I learned Adelson bought it. It seems that their Circulation Dept. is getting scared. I’ve had two phone calls from the RJ already asking me to resubscribe at bargain rates. Of course, I said no way, and told them why.  

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“I’m hoping that readership falls to levels where Adelson loses all of his investment and the paper folds. It would be interesting to learn how many cancellations they’ve had since his name was revealed.”

If it’s difficult to second her emotion about the paper’s demise, she’s not alone in her frustration at the thought of the state’s largest paper being a billionaire’s plaything. Stay tuned  for more drama.