Let the competition begin! On Tuesday, Sphere officials held kick-off training events for students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Clark County School District as they begin designing art submissions, which could be featured on the Exosphere.

Director L. Frances Henderson’s documentary This Much We Know (available now on VOD platforms) explores the topics of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and the suicide rate in Las Vegas, filtered through Henderson’s own personal perspective. It’s an often-impressionistic essay film, spending time with the family of Levi Presley, the 16-year-old who jumped to his death from the Stratosphere Tower in 2002, as well as with various experts on both Yucca Mountain and suicide. Henderson frames the movie as a way to process her own friend’s Las Vegas suicide, although the tone is more open-ended than definitive. Henderson spoke with Desert Companion about the process of making a film on such difficult subjects.

John Katsilometes, columnist for the Review-Journal, joined us to look back on the Laugh Factory's run at the resort. He also shared some news on UNLV College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame honors, Frank Marino returning to 24 Oxford, ABBA Voyage coming to the Strip, and a Vegas native opening for the Mammoth WVH/Slash tour.

Whether you’re walking the streets of a city you know like the palm of your hand or someplace completely unfamiliar, some buildings might make you stop dead in your tracks. It’s because some architectural gems are so astonishing, they never cease to impress the passersby or catch their attention, be it for all the right or wrong reasons.

Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, Illinois Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it—or any of the others at the gas station where he filmed his Instagram reel. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers. But it’s a national problem: Electric vehicle charging stations are often inaccessible, despite being designed and built decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.

UNLV’s College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame has honored many Strip entertainers in its 20-year history. But the annual event itself has never played the Strip.

Las Vegas-based film industry professionals are looking forward to a blockbuster idea that may be coming to our valley in the future. On Wednesday, the Clark County Zoning Commission unanimously gave the green light to proceed with Summerlin Studios. It's a $1.8 billion project by Sony Pictures and Howard Hughes.

For the students of the Las Vegas High School Mariachi Joya, their excitement for class is palpable. “It’s something I always look forward to every day, picking up my instrument and playing,” the group’s Student Director, Axel Rodriguez-Olivas says. The UNLV-bound student says his dream is to teach mariachi music to others, and, luckily for him, he’ll now be able to further his mariachi education without having to leave the valley. UNLV will be offering its first mariachi program starting this fall, led by Las Vegas High School’s Mariachi Joya Director Stephen Blanco.

The living-dining space at the heart of a tree grove in bucolic Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany, gives off strong Flinstones-family-kitchen vibes. Thirty-six big and slender London plane trees ensconce a series of large, rough-edged stone tables and an open oven; the transparent roof above whimsically resembles a turtle’s shell, somewhat creating the illusion of a mysterious Stonehenge-like structure. But the devil is in the details—dining surfaces are impeccably flat, with stone slabs securely fixed atop screw-pipe foundations, while the roof is crafted from fiber-reinforced plastic.

The Clark County Zoning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve multiple variances that set the stage for the development of Summerlin Production Studios. The first serious proposal to build a movie studio in Las Vegas is nowhere near “action” yet, but it has just passed “lights” and is well on its way to “camera.”

The Clark County Zoning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday morning to support plans for a motion picture studio to be built on 30 acres in Summerlin South bringing the project closer to reality.

Students across southern Nevada could soon see their designs featured on the Sphere's Exosphere. On Thursday morning, the company announced they are hosting the inaugural "Sphere XO Student Design Challenge" and students from the Clark County School District and University of Nevada, Las Vegas will have the opportunity to create art for the venue.