The Spectacle of ReHab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spectacle does not realize philosophy, it philosophizes reality. The 

concrete life of everyone has been degraded into a speculative universe.

 

- Guy DeBord

 

 

 

 

 

If you ever want a good visual of the contemporary Las Vegas caricature, the tattoos, the weird hair, the perfect bodies, then go to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Sunday. Go down the circular pathway where the guitars of all your rock heroes are encased in glass. Walk past Wasted Space, Body English, and The Joint and follow the flip-flopping towel carrying legion of young men and women as they lead you down the blue carpeted floors and toward where the line ends for the weekly pool party. At the line you will find roped off gates and men in light blue polo shirts checking ID’s. Once inside I recommend buying a bottle and getting yourself a cabana, for although the true party is poolside, you may not want to be too close to the celebration at first. Or perhaps you may want to dive in head first. If so, you submit yourself to not only the party but to the beat of the new religion that has consumed the tiny bit of space off Paradise and Harmon and what every Sunday in the summer is known as Rehab. [Read more]

September 5th Newsletter, 2008

Neon Venus Art Theatre Upcoming Classes and Events/Sept 5th Show (upcoming First Friday of September) Neon Venus News (classes, band’s shows, concert happenings)
Sept 2008 Edition

Greetings!

Welcome to the Official Neon Venus Newsletter, where you can find out “What’s New with Neon!” and get the inside scoop on the new classes that we’re offering (new acting, voice, writing, graphics and painting workshops-please scroll down for more details), shows that are playing, plus artists, performers and talented students that we want to put in the spotlight! The Neon Venus Art Theatre is located in the heart of Las Vegas, and we invite you to share in our excitement as we watch our theater, music & arts school, gallery and the band Neon Venus, become a growing part of the community.

In This Issue…

Making Headlines! Neon Venus Featured in ‘The View’ Downtown Edition
Neon Venus Celebrates the Arts: First Friday Event, Live Music, Art Show
New Classes at the Neon Venus Art Theatre!
Our first First Friday concert video! Coming soon… August 1st show footage
Neon Venus at the Sahara Hotel And Casino
Volunteers Needed! Help Support the Arts!
Help Us Make a Grass Roots Project Grow: Your Donation will be greatly appreciated!
The Neon Venus Art Non-Profit Organization/ We seek Grant Writers

Neon Venus Celebrates the Arts: First Friday Event, Live Music, Art Show

The Neon Venus not only celebrates the Arts, we love to celebrate the ARTISTS, especially those in the local scene.

Join us SEPTEMBER 5th:

MUSIC AND BANDS at the Neon Venus Art Theatre:
Featured BANDS! :
Vanderbilt, DJ NINO, Cavalry and Stargasm
Come see these great bands!

We are also covering our walls with Art from: Tara Bishop, Wallen Klann, Vanessa Kee, Christina Ambuyog, Sabrenia Perez, and other talented local artists!

Doors open at 7pm
Bands start at 8pm
The Celebration goes on until 11pm

New Classes at the Neon Venus Art Theatre!

Neon Venus Art Theatre Music and Art School are proud to introduce these brand new classes:
Children’s Theater Workshop
Creative Fiction Writing
Landscape Painting
Beginning Film Actors Scene Study Class. Classes Starting this week are Beginning Film Actors Scene Study Class, Children’s Theater Workshop, and Photoshop. Please contact us at 702-787-2481 to enroll in these classes.

A SPECIAL THANKS to all the students who signed up for classes and who have joined our family of creative wondering souls searching to express!

Get More Information On Classes Here….

Our first First Friday concert video! Coming soon… August 1st show footage

We want to thank Vanderbilt, Chondell, Cocunut, A New Betrayal, and Fractured Vision for having joined us this past First Friday. Thank you to all the performes who were there. We will be able to show an excerpt of the show in our next newsletter…coming up!

Neon Venus at the Sahara Hotel And Casino

Right now as many of you know, Peter and Lissette are pretty busy setting up classes, art shows and concerts for the venue. However, every so often Peter and Lissette play with their good friend Miguel Guidos at the Sahara Hotel and Casino @ the Nascar bar. Miguel has a kareoke show with and they feature original music from Las Vegas artists who work the Strip! Watch video of our last performance with Miguel at our You Tube music video channel: http://www.youtube.com/neonvenusmusic and/or at their website blog, we have included a link below to the footage. And Peter and Lissette are playing almost every First Friday at the venue. In a few months we expect to have an hour’s worth of Neon Venus concert footage, as well as video of bands playing at our venue. We will post many excepts at our You Tube Music Video Channel.

Neon Venus performing at the Sahara Hotel and Casino (Nascar)

Volunteers Needed! Help Support the Arts!

It takes a viliage to raise a child, and no doubt that it takes a lot of those same villagers to pull off a new theatre in town. We do seek volunteers to help us drop off promotional materials at libraries, art supplies stores as well as music stores. Volunteers could also post flyers at cofffe houses, etc.

We also need volunteers to help create newsletters and or flyers and posters for our concerts. All help is greatly appreciated! Please call us at 702-787-2481. Thank you!

Read on…

Help Us Make a Grass Roots Project Grow: Your Donation will be greatly appreciated!

The Neon Venus is accepting donations for the theater. Proceeds will help go to funding shows, classes, and staff. Every dollar counts–even the littlest amount can help in a big way.

Here’s the link where you can help us with a little contribution! You’ll see the Amazon Honor System donation link on our website’s cover page. Thank you for your support!

Read on…

The Neon Venus Art Non-Profit Organization/ We seek Grant Writers

In the Works:
In addition to creating a Community Theater that gives back to the community by offering affordable arts and media classes, as well as a home for local artists to hang their art, the Neon Venus Art Theatre owners have also set up a nonprofit organization to help fund artists and to help fund more programs to give exposure to the Arts.

We are now actively seeking grant writers to help us complete financial applications to fund the theatre. Thank you for your support. You may contact Kim at 702-787-2481.

Making Headlines! Neon Venus Featured in ‘The View’ Downtown Edition

*Thank you to the writer Amanda and the staff of the View from the Neon Venus Family Published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas SunArticle excerpt (content continued on website)

NEON VENUS ART THEATRE: HELPING ARTISTS BLOOM
By AMANDA LLEWELLYN-VIEW STAFF WRITER Self-proclaimed underground, Latin pop and rock duo Neon Venus has found a brand of unconventional success in the music industry, being featured on the MTV Tr3s network and releasing albums since 1999, but an inherent need to build something concrete and stationary spurred members Peter Valentino and Lissette Napoleoni to plant artistic roots in Las Vegas, opening the Neon Venus Art Theatre, 1404 S. 3rd St., earlier this summer. “We wanted our own little place to perform,” Napoleoni said. “There’s a definite need for a theater of this kind in Las Vegas, but the opening really stems from our need for a place like this.”

The venue offers classes and workshops in a variety of subjects, including screenwriting, video storytelling, yoga, Spanish, vocal performance, fiction writing, dance, painting, computer graphics, positive thinking and acting for adults and children. “We wanted to produce a creative center for those burgeoning artistic souls looking for a place to call home,” Valentino said. “We wanted to offer something of substance, at a reasonable cost. There’s nothing else like it downtown.”

Novice writer Fiona Clauphshone said that her interest in pursuing training in the form of a writing class has perked up since learning about the theater’s affordable pricing and close proximity to her residence.

Find out more….

More about Neon Venus
Neon Venus in Rolling Stone (CD music compilation to benefit tsunami survivors)

Neon Venus @ VH1.com (the music channel)

Neon Venus @ Billboard.com

Neon Venus @ Itunes

Join our mailing list!

Newsletter Oct 3rd, 2008

Welcome to the Official Neon Venus Newsletter. We’d like to let you know about our new classes and ongoing classes:

NEW CLASSES
On Camera Acting Class
Intro Screenplay Class
Ongoing:
Acting Class for Young Adults
Landscape Painting Class with Loretta Reinick
Drawing Class With Loretta Reinick
Group Voice Class with Chondell
Private Voice Classes with Peter Valentino
Spanish Classes with Lissette

Call us at 702-787-2481 if you’d like to sign up! The Neon Venus Art Theatre is located in the heart of Las Vegas, and we invite you to share in our excitement as we watch our theater, music & arts school, gallery and the band Neon Venus, become a growing part of the community.

In This Issue…

-Neon Venus Celebrates the Arts: First Friday Event, Live Music, Art Show
-Thank you to our new students!
-Finally it’s here… August 1st show footage!
-Neon Venus News (from the band!)
-Volunteers Needed! Help Support the Arts!
-Help Us Make a Grass Roots Project Grow: Your Donation will be greatly appreciated!

Neon Venus Celebrates the Arts: First Friday Event, Live Music, Art Show

Gwen and Jessica are students of Loretta’s Reinick’s abstract and landscaping painting class, They are art and First Friday supporters, and their work is showcased every First Friday. The Neon Venus not only celebrates the Arts, we love to celebrate the ARTISTS, especially those in the local scene.

Join us October 3rd:

MUSIC AND BANDS at the Neon Venus Art Theatre:
Featured BANDS! :
800pm Coconut
8:45pm Fractured Vision
9:30pm Hassan and the band
10:15pm Tragedy X
11:00pm AYALA

We will also be featuring a one woman show on our walls with Art from: Christina Ambubuyog. Plus artwork from all of the students of Loretta Reinick’s class and from one of our generous volunteers, Sabrenia Perez.

Doors open at 7pm
Bands start at 7:15pm
The Celebration goes on until Midnight

Thank you to our new students!

A SPECIAL THANKS to all the students who signed up for classes and who have joined our family of creative wondering souls searching to express!

We want to thank Vanderbilt, Chondell, Cocunut, A New Betrayal, and Fractured Vision for having joined during August 1st First Friday. A special thanks to all the performes who were there. We’ll show an excerpt of the September 5th show in our next newsletter…coming up in Oct!

Neon Venus News (from the band!)

Right now as many of you know, Peter and Lissette are pretty busy setting up classes, art shows and concerts for the venue. We’re almost done with our new music video, and we will be having more news about it in our next newsletter.

Volunteers Needed! Help Support the Arts!

It takes a viliage to raise a child, and no doubt that it takes a lot of those same villagers to pull off a new theatre in town. We do seek volunteers to help us drop off promotional materials at libraries, art supplies stores as well as music stores. Volunteers could also post flyers at cofffe houses, etc.

We also need volunteers to help create newsletters and or flyers and posters for our concerts. All help is greatly appreciated! Please call us at 702-787-2481. Thank you!

We’d like to thank Kim for all of her help making the theatre an educational center and we also want to thank Marie for having gotten involved with the theatre!

Read on…

Help Us Make a Grass Roots Project Grow: Your Donation will be greatly appreciated!

The Neon Venus is accepting donations for the theater. Proceeds will help go to funding shows, classes, and staff. Every dollar counts–even the littlest amount can help in a big way.

Here’s the link where you can help us with a little contribution! You’ll see the Amazon Honor System donation link on our website’s cover page. Thank you for your support!

MID-WEEK FICTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

A young man in the Casino

 

He sits alone… a glass on the table… tequila… next to an open pack of cigarettes… nearly empty… his lungs still young… his eyes wide but narrowed by sadness…

 

He places a stamp on the last of his postcards… reads them again to make sure his words are right… they are… he places them down and removes a cigarette… strikes a wooden match and brings it close to his lips almost burning his worn nose…places his hand over the front of one of the postcards… the one he wants most to get where its going… a picture of the desert at sunset… Apollo bleeding across the sky… he turns it over … ‘Love is an Oasis in the desert… and so are you,’…words he had written…

 

Around him people are laughing… drinking…singing in the distance… There are many tourists here but he is not one of them…

 

He stands up and exhales a cloud of smoke… begins walking down a carpeted aisle… passing a trash can he lets the postcards fall… all of them… he keeps walking… never looking back… heads for the poker table… his eyes widening… his nose tingling… he sniffs… his nose tingling…he sniffs.