Welp, no lie, I’d really hoped to be smashing out a triumphal, caps-locked, comeback Editor’s Note that would herald our 2022 Best of the City issue as a resoundingly decisive return to normal, but instead I’m typing this from home in my warmups in a state of glummish bemusement. The past year did not go quite as I’d envisioned. Which isn’t to say I’ve been completely robbed of optimism: As of now I can still venture, at least, the earnest wish that 2022 won’t be, as the now-well-worn joke goes, 2020 too? One of my new year’s resolutions is to carpe more diem, so let’s beta test that puppy here: In what by all accounts is a “new normal” era of endemic uncertainty and continual, free-floating moral peril, there’s little good reason not to safely and responsibly celebrate this city, right now, in all its fracturedness, vanity, and fragility. And what better guide than our Best of the City feature, with its honorees fiercely handpicked by our unapologetically enthusiastic experts and fanatics? Enjoy but, please, read between the lines as well: Also in this issue, we have stories that confront the realities behind the fantasies so steadily manufactured about our city and state, whether it’s the numerous shadows cast by our industrial fever-dream of becoming a major solar power producer (“‘Running from the Apocalypse’” by Michael Hanson); the more technologically twisted iterations of the tribute act emerging in the entertainment space (“Ghost in the Machine” by Oona Robertson); or the quotidian locals casino as a site of longing and loss (“Silver Sevens” by Brittany Bronson).
Oooh, great opportunity for a transition: Image and reality also come into play later this year, in our June/July “Focus on Nevada” Photo Contest issue. Now in its 10th year, the contest is open for entries through April 10. Visit desertcompanion.com for details. Perhaps your unique vision of where we live can supply a bit of comfort and inspiration amid all the strange new normals surely to come.