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Page 3
sunday
MAY 22, 2011
FEATURES DESK • 383-0264
H H Ha
Water Cooler
Here are a few things in news, entertainment
and pop culture that we’ve been talking about
lately.
■ A performer dressed as Batman is bodyslammed by a passer-by on the Strip. We want
to be appalled by this, really, we do, but ...
■ Canadian researchers discover bedbugs
carrying antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria. The
only thing that could make this more scary is
if they said the bedbugs were wearing clown
outfits.
■ The 59-year-old Sahara hotel closes. That
doesn’t sound old, but 59 years in real time is
175 years in Vegas Time, so, hey, good riddance.
■ A religious group says the world will
have ended Saturday. Then there’s no point in
wasting time thinking up a snarky one-liner
about it.
JOHN PRZYBYS ([email protected])
BARGAIN HUNTERS
Christopher Lawrence
LIFE ON THE COUCH
Shows
spark urge
to give
a tweet
MEET
MARKET
AT
THE
L
ike its subject
matter, “Area 51
Declassified” (10
p.m. today, National
Geographic Channel)
is shrouded in so much
secrecy, just getting an
advance copy required
a signed nondisclosure
agreement preventing
me from discussing its
contents.
Until now.
(Cue ominous music.)
Actually, I’m not sure
what all the fuss was about.
Yes, “Declassified” features
never-before-seen footage
from inside the top-secret
compound, but it’s not
like the special trots out
definitive proof of aliens,
spaceships or the Ark of
the Covenant. If anything,
it goes out of its way to
debunk the conspiracies.
Don’t get me wrong, it
makes for an entertaining
hour, as some of the now
grandfatherly types who
worked at Area 51 during
the Cold War share their
experiences.
It even made me long
for someone to turn their
stories into a “Mad Men”style period drama.
It’s just — For the love
of Howard Beale! — when
is this run of unscripted
Vegas-based shows going
to end?
Before you say anything,
I’m fully aware that
complaining about getting
paid to watch TV is like
whining because your
unicorn’s mane is just too
lustrous.
But the last time I was
able to use this space to
say, “Hey, here’s something
you should watch,” Charlie
Sheen had a job, Kirstie
Alley didn’t, and Donald
Trump was just the
boorish host of a thirdrate reality show. (Even
though everybody knew
he wouldn’t, part of me
wishes Trump had run for
president, just so NBC
would have been forced
to cancel his “People Who
Seem Vaguely Familiar
Apprentice.”)
When I started this
column nearly six years ago,
a high-profile show would
come through town maybe
every other month. But this
year, Vegas-related TV has
gone mad — like full-on,
Gary Busey-off-his-meds
berserk — with the arrivals
of everything from MTV’s
spring break and “The
Real World” to “Gigolos,”
Showtime’s increasingly
dubious reality series about
alleged male escorts.
Since February,
reality shows have been
flooding the city in waves,
sometimes three or four
a week, each one crazier
and tackier than the next
— like blondes on “The
Real Housewives of Orange
County.”
There is an upside to all
the local filming. Take the
economic impact of Spike’s
“Repo Games,” which
gives people who are about
to have their cars seized
a chance to pay off their
rides, free and clear.
“I have 50 staff members
with me,” executive
producer Sally Ann Salsano
▶ SEE LAWRENCE PAGE 8J
Follow for recommendations, snark
David Toth proudly displays his $4 purple flower umbrella. The casino worker is hooked on the deals to be found at Broadacres — especially
on items no one wants.
Broadacres maintains quirky, colorful approach to shopping
STORY
BY COREY
LEVITAN • PHOTOS BY JEFERSON APPLEGATE
By COREY
LEVITAN
LAS
VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
I
f you need answers, always seek out the
man with the flowered purple umbrella.
At least that’s how it worked on a recent
Saturday at Broadacres Marketplace and
Event Center in North Las Vegas.
“I’ll tell you everything you need to know
about this place,” says casino worker David
Toth. “You want shoes?”
The spray cans sold by Jesus Carbera are deeply discounted for an
unusual reason. Can you guess that reason from this photograph?
Toth walks half an aisle,
twirling his umbrella, then
motions toward a vendor of
$12 leather footwear.
“Look, there’s the good
stuff from Europe you pay
$400 for and then there’s
everything else,” he says.
“And this is where you find
everything else.”
Since new owners
purchased it in 2007, the
former Broadacres Swap
Meet has undergone a $5
million renovation. The
rebranded property, now 44
acres broad, includes a snack
bar and six restaurants, plus
a canopied new picnic area
where today, a band called
Vision 1 performs three sets
of Spanish-language songs.
One thing that hasn’t
changed is that Broadacres
— open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
every Friday through Sunday
— is the cheapest place
(other than garage sales) to
find used clothing, furniture,
exotic birds and nearly
anything you can possibly
want. Or not want in a million
years.
Did someone say he or
she needed a marijuana leaf
blanket?
“Actually, I came here
looking for a bicycle for the
kid,” says Sam Pringle, who is
browsing with his girlfriend.
“We’ve seen a couple, but
they’re all used.”
The blanket screamed
their names because of their
interior decorating scheme:
“In the living room, we’ve got
a Vegas theme; in the kid’s
room, we’ve got a SpongeBob
theme; in the bedroom, we’ve
▶ SEE BROADACRES PAGE 6J
Market offers something for everyone
“Look, there’s the good stuff from Europe you pay $400 for and then there’s everything else.
And this is where you find everything else.’’
DAVID TOTH
ON SWAP MEET
Page 6J • Sunday, May 22, 2011
{ LIVING }
a
Las Vegas Review-Journal
▶ BROADACRES: Market offers a little something for everyone
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3J
got a weed theme.”
The couple already owns a similar
blanket. But, as Pringle explains, “this
one’s got flames.”
Toth bought his flowered purple
umbrella earlier today to shield him
from the sun.
“If it was pink and had Barbie written
on it, I’d still use it,” he says. “A good
deal is a good deal.”
Although haggling is frequently
encouraged here, Toth didn’t see the
need.
“Hey, four bucks, man,” he says.
Around a corner from a linen vendor
called Holy Sheets, Jesus Carbera sells
new spray cans for $1: hair mousse,
shaving cream, carpet cleaner.
The catch? They’re all missing their
tops. Carbera buys them for pennies
each from a supplier on Washington
Avenue.
“People bring them home and put the
cap on from their old ones,” Carbera
explains as the wind knocks a can of
Boundary dog repellent off the edge of
his table.
On an average weekend, Carbera’s
profits outpace his expenses ($10 rent
for Friday, $25 for Saturday, $30 for
Sunday) 3 to 1.
“It’s good,” he says.
With hardly a glance, Tim “The
Key Man” Welch recognizes the make
of door lock mechanism that auto
mechanic Francisco Rodriguez hands
him. Welch immediately begins cutting
a Toyota key.
“Two and a half days a week is one
and a half more than I want to work,” he
says, “but I need beer money.”
Welch, a retired locksmith and
Vietnam veteran, has been a Broadacres
vendor since 1989, back when his daily
rent was $5.
“I had a great spot on the main aisle,”
he says.
Because of the elimination of five
rows in 2009, he’s now hidden down the
narrowest alley at the swap meet.
“My old spot’s in the middle of a
parking lot now,” he says.
Welch finishes the key, gives a
dismissive hand wave and returns to the
Keystone Light he has hidden inside a
can cooler.
Robert Sattler is the vendor with the
longest Broadacres tenure. The Canoga
Park, Calif., transplant set up shop six
months after opening day in 1977.
“It’s a lot, lot bigger than when I
came here, and it’s all Mexican now,”
says Sattler, 85. “But it’s fine. I like the
people, and I still have a good time.”
As Sattler speaks, the wind kicks up
to about 25 mph.
“Wind is no good,” he says.
This seems a strange statement from
someone selling wind chimes.
“It’s the noise,” he explains. “It scares
people away.”
At Gate 5, a giant inflatable product
replica is loosed from its mooring.
Instead of greeting customers, the
20-foot Tecate beer can now threatens
them like The Blob.
A woman screams in mock terror
from the ticket office, whose windows
are obscured by the expanding red and
gold vinyl.
“Somebody needs to call the guy from
Tecate,” a guard says into his walkie-
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Robert Sattler, 85, has the longest Broadacres vending tenure, setting up shop six months after opening day in 1977.
Tim “The Key Man” Welch, left, receives a door lock mechanism from auto mechanic
Francisco Rodriguez.
talkie.
“Unplug it! Unplug it!” someone else
shouts.
Before any innocent souls are lost,
The Blob is deflated. But so is today’s
swap meet — three hours ahead of
schedule. Customers rush the exits
as white vans appear from nowhere.
All at once, hundreds of thousands of
unwanted items suddenly vanish.
Until tomorrow.
Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.
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Sam Pringle and Teriesa Adams are the
proud new owners of a marijuana leaf
blanket with flames.
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