Rita On The Road

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Broadcasting from the entertainment capital of the world, this is Rita on the Road. I'm your host, Rita Pardue, on 91.5 KUNV, Jazz and More. On today's episode, part one, we're speaking with members of the Nevada Preservation Foundation about their upcoming event, Home and History, Las Vegas. Part 2, we head over to the UNLV track to speak with Liz Palmer, the executive director with the Nevada Senior Games. And Part 3, a conversation with saxophonist Eddie Sarabia. And now, Part 1, a conversation with members of the Nevada Preservation Foundation. Amy Raymer, board member and programming committee chair. Mitch Cohen, board member and Suzy Van Ness, home and history program director. Home and History Las Vegas runs April 27th through the 30th with 49 events this year featuring walking tours, bus tours, biking tours and even a martini tour. We all met up at the historic Westside School. 91.5 KUNV, this is Rita on the road. Just to give a little bit of background on the organization, the Nevada Preservation Foundation, who would like to answer the question and give us

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a little bit of information about what your mission statement is, why you're

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doing this? I can do that. All right, Amy, jump right in there. So the Nevada Preservation Foundation was founded in 2014 and we started and we still are an organization that is really focused toward preservation and this event kind of grew out of that focus and so we really make it a celebration of our communities that are a little bit older and additionally puts the focus on preservation. We get people wanting to be in some of these older spaces and bring the joy to those as well too. So the Home and History weekend, the Home and History celebration, is actually a kickoff of May, which is Historic Preservation Month. And under Susie, this will be her fifth year producing this entire weekend of tours and events and cocktail parties and all of that. So we've been doing that. The Home and History started, the actual event started in 2016. Suzy has been with the organization doing this programming since 2018. And again, to our mission of really preserving Nevada's built environments and connecting to community here is really our focus and this event, you know, and we put heritage tourism into it and just the best of both worlds.

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And I know our listeners are going to want to find out, how do I get tickets? What's all going to be happening?

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So how do we get tickets?

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At our website, it's homeandhistorylv.com.

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That's right, homeandhistorylv.com. And not to worry, we're gonna give that out several times during this interview segment. What can we expect to see on this year's Home and History Las Vegas? And I've also heard through the grapevine that you have three new tours. We have Mitch Cohen. He serves on the board of the foundation.

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Welcome, Mitch.

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Thank you very much, Rita. I've developed one of the new tours and it's called Motel Madness. It talks about the evolution of the motel in Las Vegas and actually the whole US from the 20s until they started to decline in the 60s. And a lot of people are going to walk down Fremont Street. They see these older hotels in various states, but they don't know the stories behind them. They don't know the people, so I'm going to introduce them to a lot of fascinating people who were in the motel industry. Some of them were movie stars, some of them were ambassadors who traveled the world. This

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is awesome. Also, I understand that you have 49 events. Is that what's going on? The tour that you were talking about, Mitch, that's just one of many tours. So what types of tours? Like bus tours, walking tours, what

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all do you offer? We have bus tours and walking tours. We have a bike tour. We've

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got cocktail parties. We have a learning event and I think that's about it.

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Well that's a lot. Are you kidding? My goodness. Once again, to get your ticket, homeandhistorylv.com slash upcoming events. I saw on the website, what are the ticket prices start at? I think... They range from $10, the learning event I think is $10, all the way up to $150. Oh, and $150, is that the Elvis tour I've been hearing about.

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Oh my goodness.

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In terms of the different types of tours as well too, this is the first year that we're going to be rolling out the self-driven tours as well too. We have an app which is called the Story app, S-T-Q-R-Y. And with that, so if you can't come to one of the actual events, you can go and get that app and do the tour yourself. So there'll be three, those are all brand new. This is our first year for the Story app, so there'll be three tours on there. And then additionally, in terms of new tours, we have a tour of the Huntridge neighborhood, which is going to include a step into the Huntridge Theater, which just hasn't been done since the 90s, whenever it was an actual venue. And then there also is a walking tour of the Scotch 80s. This is the first time that we've ever done that. We've got a partnership that we have worked out with UNLV Public History, and they've written a lot of our content. We have an event at the Mob Museum, which focuses on Block 16. So you'll have to come learn about Block 16 with us. And then additionally, we also have the Clark County Museum. They have Heritage Street, and it's their 35th anniversary. So we're kind of checking a couple of things off with those. And then, like I said, our big top off of the weekend is, yes, the Elvis tour. We're very excited about the backstage, Elvis, you get to see the suite where he slept. And then additionally, we also have one of our biggest draws is the Vintage Vegas Home Tour, which is a driving tour where we give you a booklet. We have 10 homes this year. year, you get to walk in and explore these houses and see things that folks have restored back to original, some things people have done to update. It's very much like Modernism Week. We celebrate architecture, we celebrate the social history of Las Vegas, the built environment. Like I said, we try to hit absolutely everything.

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I feel like we've really done that with 49 events. Yes you have. Well folks for our listeners mark it on your calendar save the date April 27th through the 30th. Tickets are still available at homeandhistorylv.com slash upcoming events. What I've been doing is volunteering with different nonprofits so folks I'm actually going to be at one of these homes, come and say hello and learn about the history. It's so important, don't you think, Amy, to know where we've been and where we're going. So this is really, really amazing what you've been able to put together.

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And if I could just say, we have to give a huge thank you to the Centennial Commission. The Centennial Commission this year funded us to levels that we've never been funded before. We would urge you to go out and get one of those preservation license plates for your car. It's got the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas on there. A portion of that goes to fund grants that do things like this, so we can really show our community our history.

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Are you looking for supporters and new members for the Nevada Preservation Foundation?

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Yes, you can go to our website, that's nevadapreservation.org, and if you go there you can become a member. We love that, we're in the process right now of kind of getting things going with our membership, but we're looking toward a newsletter. We reach out to folks and let them know. We do have monthly tours that we try to do every month, and things that we offer there, so yes, being a member does give you kind of a step into that as well. So memberships are great. We can always use volunteers. Additionally, there's just so many fabulous things. I've been answering phone calls all week. People are really excited. So we urge you to come in and check everything out.

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Thank you to Amy Raymer and Susie Van Ness and Mitch Cohen. Thank you. May you all have a successful tour and lots of folks come out and enjoy the history of Las Vegas. track. 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More, this is Rita on the road. We are at the UNLV track on the UNLV campus. With the executive director of the Nevada Senior Games, this is Liz Palmer. Hi Rita, I'm so glad that we got together. Oh yeah, we have a little bit of a history and we're going to share that with our listeners in just a little bit. But I'd like to know and share with everyone what is the history of this organization? How did you get involved with it? Well, let me tell you about the Nevada Senior Games first. We are a non-profit organization. We were established in 1980, so we're over 40 years old. That's very exciting. and we are Nevada's largest senior-oriented sports organization and we are an official member of the National Senior Games Association. Very cool. Well the important time of year right now is sign-up time. So what is that process for the registration? And before we go any farther with our interview, let's give out a website so people can check it out, see what the different events are, and then you'll step us through right now what the registration process is. Sure, well our website where you can register online is NevadaSeniorGames.com, all spelled out NevadaSeniorGames.com Very simple and very descriptive, and if you go on our website you're going to find oodles of information about the games. You will see the schedule and the venues. They're all around the Las Vegas Valley. Our events will take place from September through October this year. The coolest part of the year, well not coolest, but let's just say one of the most fun and enjoyable parts of the year. In fact, about 50% of our participants come from out of state. So it's a lot of fun. We have almost 1,000 participants over all our sports each year. So our website, if you click on sports information, you will be able to see a flyer for each of our sports. We have 20 different team and individual sports. They range from archery and badminton to track and field and swimming and cornhole and bowling. We try to say we've got something for everyone. Registration, it's a very easy online process. You pay by credit card for your registration and events fees. And it's entirely secure. And you are registered instantly. You will get emails from us with your confirmation. And all you do from that point onward is train and get ready to enjoy yourself this fall. Well, one of the questions, what constitutes a senior? So is there an actual age range that people can get involved? Yes. Now, a few of our sports have, we call them, sub-seniors, which is 45 to 49, simply because they're very popular sports. And we have people who ask if they can participate. But for the majority of our sports, it's ages 50 and up. People compete in five-year gender age groups and we award gold, silver and bronze medals for the top three in each gender and age group. Fantastic. Well I want to share with our listeners, I have a little bit of a history with you because last year I trailed along when you went over to compete in the city of Mesquite. And the fascinating thing, I actually, my journalism background coming in, I interviewed a woman that was going to be, she was signed up for five events and the thing that made her so interesting to me is that she was going to be throwing the javelin, which she had never done in her life. And I asked her how she trained. And she said during the pandemic, she watched numerous YouTube videos.

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That is so cool.

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Well, you know, we are our motto is fitness for the fun of it. And we attract all levels of athletes. And there are some people who are quite serious about the competition. But the majority of our people are the recreational athletes who want to try something different and new and fun. Now I wouldn't recommend just watching YouTube videos for some of the more, shall we say, challenging technical events such as pole vault or hurdles. Those are a little dicey. But at the Mesquite Senior Games, and they are a local games, they're wrapping up I think by the end of April. But we went to the Mesquite Senior Games at the track meet and just had a barrel of fun. And yes, this lady, she wanted to try everything. She said, I remember she said something like, I'm a kid at the carnival and I want to go on all the rides. Well, that's the spirit. And that kind of leads me to the next question. Is that maybe somebody back in their high school and college You really excelled on track and field events, but now you're in your 50s, 60s. I actually at that event met a gentleman that was in his 90s who competed. So what is your advice for somebody that might want to get back into this, but frankly they're a bit rusty? How do you counsel them? I would go to your doctor to get a release, an exam, a release saying that you are ready for physical activity. And then before you start doing things like grabbing the tennis racket or throwing the shot or whatever it is you want to do, I would say work on general conditioning at first. You might need to lose a little weight. You might need to get your cardio and your strength levels improved. And once you do about six to eight weeks of general conditioning, you're ready to start training on your specific event. Well, speaking of training, and folks, you can hear in the background, we're over at the UNLV track, and it's a beautiful day today. You hear the birds in the background. There's been music because this is a very active place here over on the UNLV campus. But speaking of training, is this something that you do every weekend, Liz? Because it becomes like a community of people and creating an opportunity to make some new friendships. So what happens over here on the track? Well, we have a group of people, senior athletes, small group, maybe 6 to 10 of us, who usually meet on Saturdays about 9 o'clock. And we're going to make that earlier because as it gets warmer, we want to start earlier. But we have such a great time. We don't have a formal training group. Everybody goes and does their own thing. But we just have a wonderful camaraderie. And I've made some new friends. And well, Rita and I. But we really have a great time and we get in a good workout while we're at it. Win-win.

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Yes.

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Well, let's give out that website again because it's so critical. You know, if you are considering this, go for it. Go for it now. Start training because the competitions, like you said, will be in September and October. So what's that website again, Liz? NevadaSeniorGames.com. All the information needed is on our website and you can register online at our website. The other thought is maybe you feel like you're not at the level to compete and okay, I get that. Maybe you're just now connecting with this community of people. So could they volunteer and just be a part of things and help out? So how does that work? Well they can volunteer or they can even just be spectators because all the parking is free at all of our venues and there's no admission fee. So if you just want to come and see what we're all about, please come and spectate and cheer on your fellow seniors. And if you would like to volunteer, we always could use volunteers at our events handing out the t-shirts. Everybody gets a t-shirt when they register. And we wouldn't have volunteer assignments just yet, but if you shoot us an email at NevadaSeniorGames at Outlook.com. Let me say that one more time. NevadaSeniorGames at Outlook.com. And just express your interest in volunteering. We will keep your email address and we'll reach out to you closer to the games. Fantastic. Well as our time is kind of escaping us now, I do want to let folks know there's another side of what Liz Palmer is involved in. She is currently representing Nevada as Miss Senior Nevada. Any thoughts you want to, as we finish up, that you'd like to say about your reign as a senior and encouraging other seniors? Oh well I had the time of my life going to the national pageant in Hershey, Pennsylvania where I competed for the title of Miss Senior America. 42 different ladies all lovely, all talented, intelligent. I was so fortunate to be named third runner-up. It was the thrill of a lifetime. See folks, stay in shape. Well thank you so much Liz Palmer, Executive Director for Nevada Senior Games dot com. Thank you for speaking with us. Thank you.

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It was a pleasure, Rita.

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And part three, a conversation with saxophonist Eddie Sarabia. 91.5 Jazz and More, this is Read on the Road, and here we are on the UNLV campus in one of our production labs with Eddie Saravia. Eddie, I'm glad you could make it today.

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Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

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You have been so busy, so thank you for taking the time out. And everyone that has heard this wonderful saxophonist play, you know why he's in demand these days. So I'm so glad we could kind of carve out this time. Well you are finishing up your senior year here at UNLV. Tell me what's going on in your life right now.

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So I've been starting to do a lot of professional work. UNLV's given me a great network of musicians, just different professionals around town so i've started to work in this last eight to ten ten months and uh... really enjoying really enjoying that putting together as many shows as i can and and collaborating with some incredible musicians here

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well you've got an upcoming gig that uh... i'm really fond of because now i'm personally serving on the las vegas jazz society board and you're going to be appearing at bootleggers coming up and what is that date in May? It is May 21st from 1 to 3. And folks I know this the tickets go so quickly it's a wonderful venue great restaurant excellent food you'll want to make your reservations go to the Las Vegas Jazz Society website scroll down and you can see how you can make your reservations. The Las Vegas Jazz Society, the actual website is lvjs.org. But we'll get that to you again before this interview segment is over. Well, Eddie, you are such a talent and you were one of those recipients a while back that received the Joe Williams Scholarship. How has receiving that impacted your life here on campus?

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Yeah, so the Joe Williams Scholarship I've been receiving since my freshman year here. Again, this is my last semester. And it's been a really big part of my education. It's mostly why I'm able to be here. So I'm very grateful to the Scholarship Foundation. I've gotten the chance to play with a lot of phenomenal musicians. And again, just like UNLV, the Joe Williams Scholarship has a great network of musicians and a lot of people that have something to bring us together, you know. So a lot of people that have graduated UNLV, different alumni, even getting into the university. One of the people that's going to be joining me on the 21st is actually Patrick Hogan. He's joining us again. This is our second collaboration together and I met him playing in the Joel Williams Scholarship Combo. So I'm really grateful to continue playing with such great people.

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That is an amazing thing about especially going to school here in Las Vegas with all the different musicians that work these different shows. Is there anyone in particular that you feel like maybe has really been a great mentor to you.

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Actually, one of the people, another reason why I'm at UNOV is because Julian Tanaka, another previous recipient of the Joe Williams Scholarship, went and was commissioned by my high school in Los Angeles to write a chart. And it was so incredible, and I had to find out where he was teaching, where he's from, everything about him. And so he's a big reason why I'm here. And again, we've got to collaborate both as my teacher and in different ensembles. And yeah, just happy to be able to play with him.

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Well, the cool thing about this industry and that you've already had this opportunity starting to connect with people, but networking. And like for me, in radio and voiceovers, somebody hears that voice and they think, oh yeah, that would be great for the project I'm working on. Has that been a similar experience for you with the networking? Like, oh yeah, he would be great in our section.

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Yeah, so again, going back to Patrick, Patrick has been a great influence on me. Just a really, really good friend. Received me with open arms since I got here. And watching actually his trio, he has an incredible trio, they play a lot of his original music and some adaptations and I heard his group, they just sound incredible and actually we're going to have his drummer, Andrea D'Angelo joining us on May 21st as well. So yeah, it's another networking thing, just hearing one of my best friends play, going out to his show and realizing the caliber of musicians we have in this town.

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I'm also thinking, being that I'm involved with the Las Vegas Jazz Society and serving on the board, one of the areas that I really think is so cool is having this community band experience. Your name came up on that because I learned that there was someone that people get busy or maybe there's illness or whatever and your name came up and I was like, okay, yeah, let's get Eddie.

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Eddie will help out in the band. So what has your experience been with the community band?

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It's been so much fun. I've played with the musical director Tom Pastner in the past and when the idea came up and he said that this band was going to be a thing, first started at the Nevada School of the Arts and so we were rehearsing there for a while. I played a concert, actually the Jazz Society Picnic was the first one with the first gig that the community arts band played. So much fun, so many incredible musicians. Tom Hall and Tom Baxter actually asked me to my quintet to play the picnic and that was one of the the first first little bit of exposure for my band as well so eternally grateful to the Las Vegas Jazz Society to the community band. I've met

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so many great people and it's so much fun. I was there I heard you perform that day it was fantastic

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well you're gonna be graduating grad school is that in your future? Yeah so

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I've expanded my interests a lot in these last couple of years and discovered that hospitality is something I'm very passionate about as well and so in in the fall I've applied to the hotel administration masters at UNLV, so staying in town. I've talked to Dave a little bit, Dave Loeb, about staying in the jazz program, still being involved and for the near future I'm going to be staying here in Vegas.

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So hospitality, how does that play out with what you've been studying and getting your bachelors degree in? So how will those two work together?

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So actually it's been a really, really good switch. My big forte, if you would, would be special events, live events, that kind of thing. So being a musician, I had an internship actually a year ago where I had to communicate with venues, figure out needs, all this kind of stuff, to have a show for this charity I was working for. And so being a musician, it just made it so much easier because at the moment, I just knew what everyone needed. I knew how people operated. I knew when to talk to people, when to kind of deal with things on your own. And so, yeah, all those skills of being a musician, especially sitting in a practice room and being able to work on stuff for multiple hours at a time, really helped my discipline and my diligence.

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You know, that was one of the things. I started off as, my first career was as a musician and a vocalist. And my takeaway after studying so hard and perfecting my craft was I wished I had more experience in business. Because the bottom line is as a musician, you freelance, you need to know how to, in in addition to networking, the bookings and keeping track of your taxes and all that sort of thing. I think this will be a real encouragement, or that's what I would like it to be, an encouragement for you. You're on the right path. Well, as we finish up our segment, I see how our time is just escaping us. Let's once again give out for the Bootlegger restaurant coming up on May 21st, okay, make your reservations because those seats go very quickly, folks. So you can head over to the Las Vegas Jazz Society website at lvjs.org. And any closing thoughts, Eddie?

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For this show, we're going to be joined by an incredible band. Again, we're going to have Patrick Hogan on vocals and piano, Keegan Carter on bass, Andrea D'Angelo on the drums, Harrison Collard on the trumpet, and I'm going to be on the saxophones. It's going to be a great show. We're coming off of a great show at Gambit Henderson last month, so it's going to be really fun. Well, thank you so much, Eddie, for

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joining us. Eddie Sarabia. How can people follow you? Are you on Facebook and

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Instagram? Facebook and Instagram are the best ways to find me. I'm on both as Eddie Eddy why Sarabia s a r a b i a and you can find out about everything about upcoming shows Reach out to me. You can connect. Thank you, Eddie. Sarabia

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Thank you to our guests from the Nevada Preservation Foundation Amy Raymer Mitch Cohen and Susie Van Ness from the Nevada Senior Games Liz Palmer and and saxophonist Eddie Sarabia. If you'd like to listen again to this episode of Rita on the Road, it will be archived on the kunv.org podcast page. Until next time, this is Rita Pardue on 91.5

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KUNV, jazz and more. KUNV, jazz and more.

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you

Transcribed with Cockatoo