The Nevada Museum of Art Las Vegas stands in sharp contrast to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Whereas the Smith Center is dignified (or one might say even triumphantly staid) in its grand architectural gesture to the Hoover Dam, the Southern Nevada Museum of Art is quietly daring.

Blues, rockabilly, sweat, sex, violence and camp — from two skinny twentysomethings Robots are taking over our airwaves. Every other song you hear nowadays is shot through with Auto-Tune, synthesizer or the womp womp womp of chordless bass — and it represents the push toward a genre that promises the reversal of everything the musical classics spent years to build — all on instruments that need a three-prong outlet to function.

Clear your calendar for the next few months. You’re going to be busy.

“You just let them go at it.” It’s not a sentiment normally associated with construction paper and crayons: “I think kids need to think progressively, they are our future … they must be able to think creatively and see how thinking creatively changes the world.

“We do our best to keep it fun,” says RagTag Entertainment Artistic Director Andrew Wright. Since bursting onto the Vegas scene a year ago, RagTag has been a beehive of activity, test-driving theatrical works in progress.

Erica Anzalone’s gutsy verse embraces — and explodes — formalism Few bards these days can rock a red dress and cowboy boots and still be taken seriously by their professors and academic peers. But Las Vegas poet Erica Anzalone makes it look easy as she steps up to the microphone in the Contemporary Arts Center on this March afternoon.

We would have saved the rooster Editor’s note: The Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would not have euthanized a rooster given to the organization. This fact was incorrect in an article (“Gives you wings,” August 2011).

Pecan pie at Delmonico’s Pastry Chef Stephanie Nikolic tells us the origins of Delmonico’s recipe for this Southern dessert staple are unknown, but it’s so popular, “it comes with the restaurant and no one would dream of taking it off the menu.” One bite past the crackling crust, bursting with pecan, butter, egg and sugar goodness and you will taste why.

As Pride celebrates its 28th year, pioneering gay community activists remember the struggles -- and the triumphs Nowadays, it's pretty easy to be a gay activist in Las Vegas. It's no longer risky to be out of the closet in most quarters - even at Nellis Air Force Base - thanks to laws that protect workers and customers from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

She writes and directs edgy, off-the-wall plays — staged on a coupon-clipping budget When a specialist in the plays of Samuel Beckett with a Ph.D.