Like myself before I moved here, perhaps you believe that Las Vegas is surrounded on all four sides for miles and miles by the desert. The truth is that yes, there’s a lot of desert, but there are also mountains surrounding the city – hence the Las Vegas Valley. Indeed, there is a ski resort within an hour’s drive from the city, albeit not a large one.

AP: FBI May Relax Drug Use Hiring Policy. Unless you’re applying to be a special agent, it may soon be OK to have smoked some marijuana in your past and still get a job at the FBI. They probably have lost a lot of good people in the past who couldn’t help being habitual truth-tellers. Now if only the US military will figure out that kicking out 26 Arab and Farsi gay linguists between 1998 and 2004 was a bad idea.

Ebert gives high marks to the new Wallace & Gromit film. “Remarkably, given the current realities of animation, ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ is the second stop-motion animated film in two weeks, after ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.’ Both of these films are wonderful, but Wallace and Gromit have the additional quality of being lovable beyond all measure…” I remember being obsessed with the evil penguin in The Wrong Trousers as a teenager.

Last night, I went to see my first concert in Vegas: Sigur Ros, who played at The Joint (part of the Hard Rock Casino & Hotel). This is my 4th or maybe 5th time seeing them and they were great as always, as was their backup band Amina, an all-girl string quartet. You can’t go wrong when eight Icelandic folkenminstrels are on strange.

An old, but excellent New Yorker essay on magician Ricky Jay. He’s more than a magician: he’s a con-man, a bunco-steerer, a World Record card thrower, an actor (a mainstay of Mamet and PTA, and recently on Deadwood), a collector of rare books on magic, a magic historian, an artist, and perhaps the world’s best sleight-of-hand trickster. His approach to collecting rare books on magic reminds me of Mr. Norrell. A long article, but worth it if you’ve ever been intrigued by the confidence man personality, i.e., the ability to charm and disarm with some precise language, an enchanting gaze, and a supple wrist.

They’re not quite banging their shoes on the bannister (or the barrister) yet, but voting at the House today turned into a screaming match. The Dems were angry at the House leadership for holding a 5-minute vote open for 50-minutes so that they could turn around the winning votes. More at Think Progress. “Not a proper parliamentary inquiry!!!” (via TPM)

Word is that Harriet Miers isn’t sure who her favorite Supreme Court justice is. She tells Senator Leahy that her favorite is “Warren,” not immediately clarifying between Earl Warren or Warren Burger. She eventually says she means Burger, but Volokh writes that neither choice makes her look very good from the conservative point-of-view.

Evidence you ‘re in Las Vegas:

Having lived in the Boston area for the past eight years, I’m quite used to high rents coupled with small living spaces. While prices are on the rise, Las Vegas has a much cheaper renter’s market. On the down side, the apartments out here don’t have the same charm as the 3rd floor of a 100-year-old 3-family home with hardwood floors; one is more likely to find a cookie-cutter layout with wall-to-wall carpeting. On the up side, Lee and I are paying about the same rent as we had in Somerville with three or four times the space (per person) and some odd additional amenities.

The RJ reported today that Jack Carter, the eldest of President Carter’s offspring, is planning to run for the US Senate next year. If he does, he’ll be going after the spot currently held by John Ensign, a Republican. As Harry Reid is our other senator, if Carter can ride on his father’s coattails (and his own accomplishments) to win the seat, both of Nevada’s senators will be Democrats.

There was such a vast difference in production style between Music Has The Right to Children and Geogaddi that the first listen to The Campfire Headphase was a bit of a disappointment; it appeared as if Boards of Canada had scaled back their ambitions in the studio, especially in light of their wonderful, trippy remixes of Beck and cLOUDDEAD. While I’m still not completely free of this feeling, the depth of TCH has revealed itself over subsequent listens through its melancholic melodies and subtle flourishes.

There used to be two suns here in the middle of the desert. In the past, there was the Las Vegas Review Journal, the morning daily with the state’s largest circulation, and the Las Vegas Sun, an afternoon paper with a more liberal bent than the RJ. Today, for the first time, the Sun was delivered as a section of the RJ. This would be like opening up the New York Times and seeing the New York Post as Section B.

I was disappointed to read in Slate today that Roberts will not be wearing Rehnquist’s trademark gold stripes on the sleeves of his chiefly robe. Whatever happened to the idea of the justice-cum-superhero? How else will he proclaim his supreme power over the other eight justices? Roberts, you’re too damn humble.

I’ve never been one to pay attention to lyrics much when listening to music. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but I liken it to the fact that I’ve never had the attention span to enjoy poetry either. Hence, I’m perfectly happy listening to electronic and other kinds of instrumental music. When I do listen to music with lyrics, the singer is often more of an instrument than a medium for language – e.g., Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Bjork, David Bowie, etc. And once I’ve listened to a record enough times, the lyrics eventually soak in and I can often appreciate them – e.g., Sufjan Stevens, Flaming Lips, Elliot Smith, etc.

The Review Journal is to Nevada as The Boston Globe is to New England. Our subscription started a few days ago and while it’s not quite high-quality journalism, reading it is a good way to get quickly up-to-speed with local issues.