Week of March 13, 2024

From the editor’s desk

At every level of government in the United States, there are laws that empower the public to file requests for public records. Obtaining them isn’t always as simple as it should be. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock News collect stories of “ridiculous redactions, outrageous copying fees, and retaliatory attacks on requesters.” This year, they wrote, “We have some doozies for the ages.” Presenting The Foilies 2024—the worst in government transparency.

Since 2020, more than half of Nevada’s voter registrars have left their posts. Among the reasons: harassment and pressure from conspiracy theorists. Jennifer Willett and Kerry Durmick from the voting-access protection group All Voting Is Local explain why this is a potential threat to our democracy.

The Reno Leprechaun Crawl, Shanty Dolan’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend celebration, and the Sparks Kiwanis Pairings for Programs fundraiser are all coming up this weekend. Check out Taste of the Town for more details, announcements from several new eateries, and more food and beverage news.

“There are certain areas that, if you told me they were going to be hotspots for the band 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have known, because not being from America, I honestly hadn’t ever heard of Carson,” Young Dubliners frontman Keith Roberts told RN&R music scribe Matt King. But the band and Carson City audiences have somehow just clicked over the years. The Dubliners will play again in Carson tomorrow, March 14, at Nashville Social Club.

Johan Renck’s Spaceman has a lot going for it—Adam Sandler as a distraught astronaut; a relatable breakup story; a possibly supernatural giant spider voiced by Paul Dano—so it seemed like it could only be a success, says Bob Grimm. But the pacing is so slow it wishes it were a snail in quicksand, making it a strange cinematic misfire.

“Millie Bobby Brown definitely shouldn’t pay the caterer for her wedding in Damsel, because she has to wind up squaring off with a bloodthirsty dragon—and it’s totally the fault of the wedding’s organizers,” Bob writes. It turns out to be a good—though not-quite family-friendly—story with a solid twist of an ending.

This spring, local theater companies are offering warmhearted comedies, provocative dramas, playful improvisation, musicals and even a touch of the paranormal to shake us out of our winter doldrums. Here’s what’s onstage in Reno, Sparks and Carson City over the next several weeks.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor