This morning, the injunction against the ordinance banning the feeding of the homeless in public parks, filed by the Nevada ACLU, was granted by a district court judge. Yes, that means that you can again go down to a park in Las Vegas, give a sandwich to a homeless person, and not worry about being cited – at least until the city writes another overly broad ordinance.

Last night, I was one of around 250 people who witnessed the Pahrump Town Board vote 3-2 to enact the “English Language and Patriot Reaffirmation Ordinance”. It was a hostile angry mob environment and – much to the liking of most of the Pahrump residents at the meeting, I’m sure – I left town soon after it passed sorry that I had to spend $10 on gas in town to get the car over the mountain pass back to Las Vegas.

After a well-needed rest yesterday, I’m back to say a few things about what transpired on November 7th, 2006. Most of you already know that Nevada’s Question 7, the Regulation of Marijuana Initiative, for which I spearheaded the Internet campaign, did not pass. The final breakdown was 44% for, 56% against. Let me say a few things about this.

The Stardust Resort and Casino, the model for the Scorsese film Casino and the site of the best neon sign on the Strip, officially closed down today, to be replaced by the much fancier Echelon Place. Implosion date, if at all, still unknown. I just hope that the beautiful sign is preserved somehow, perhaps at the Neon Graveyard.

Last month, vandals defaced a panel of rock art in a cave located in Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas, bringing up a dilemma: there is ancient rock art all over southern Nevada (expertly indexed and photographed in detail here, and the source of the above photo) and people like me love to visit the sites, but if the locations of the rock art is made public it puts the art at great risk of vandalism. The current solution to this problem is to publicize only a few major locations (Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and to a lesser degree, Sloan Canyon, Keyhole Canyon, Grapevine Canyon – all of which I’ve been to except for Sloan and Grapevine), leaving the more obscure sites for historians and locals in the know. This seems to be a rather pragmatic approach, but unfortunately, with the massive growth Nevada has been experiencing and will continue to experience, petroglyph sites are becoming more vulnerable than ever.

One of my favorite Halloween movies is the underappreciated Cemetary Man (Italian title: Dellamorte Dellamore). It’s a 1994 Italian horror film dubbed in English, similar to the style of Dario Argento but much more surreal and philisophical than the films of that master of Italian horror.

Does the clarification at the bottom of this page make any sense? I’ll quote it here:

As a response to the New York Times Book Review list of the best works of American fiction in the last 25 years, the British Guardian has released their own list of the best works of British, Irish, and Commonwealth fiction in the last 25 years. Like the NYTBR list, they queried a large group of famous writers to produce the list. Unlike the NYTBR list, I know very little about the top choices. (I’ve read some Martin Amis and Anthony Burgess, but not the novels that were selected.) (thx, mb)

According to his latest online letter written from rehab, Roger Ebert is recovering successfully and has written his first review (“The Queen”) since his medical problems began in June. He plans to review a few more recent films, but “won’t be back to full production until sometime early next year.” I guess that means no Ebert Top Ten this year…

A few months ago, I wrote about the Super Happy Women’s Party, an official minor political party in Nevada. Well, they’ve recently changed their name to the Heterosexual & Robotic Party and updated their bylaws. Notably:

Last year, I expressed dismay at the results of local alt-weekly City Life ‘s Best of the Valley 2006 choices, submitted by local readers. If you recall, Vegas readers chose unique establishments such as The Olive Garden for Best Italian and P.F. Chang’s for Best Chinese. I promised that I would submit a 2006 entry, and I plan to mail it in tomorrow. It’s only fair that I publish my own Food & Drink choices, so here they are. Let me know where I’ve gone wrong:

October is the last full month before Election Day, so I expect to be kept quite busy working on the campaign to pass Nevada’s Question 7, the Regulation of Marijuana Amendment. I’ll continue to post whatever comes my way that I find interesting, but my leisure time will be scarce.

Writer Douglas Rushkoff asks others to help him support Robert Anton Wilson, the co-author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy , “whose infirmity and depleted finances have put him in the precarious position of not being able to meet next month’s rent.” I’ve never read fnord The Illuminatus! Trilogy (it’s getting close to the front of my queue), but I’m quite familiar with its influence. I guess today is conspiracy day on crazymonk.org, so if you’re fond of RAW’s work, follow the first link and help him out. (thx, bl!p)

Five weeks before the primary election where state controller Kathy Augustine was running for state Treasurer – even though she had been impeached for violating state ethics laws a few years earlier – she suddenly died of a massive heart attack, under mysterious circumstances. Now, based on the coroner’s toxicology report, her death has been ruled a murder and her husband has been arrested as the prime suspect. Politics in Nevada almost rivals that of the Roman Empire. The drama continues.