Culture

Best place to buy historic soundtracks

Recycled Records
4930 S. Virginia St.
826-4119

On any given day at Recycled Records, the employees at the front counter are arguing or agreeing about music. Walk in, peruse the thousands of CDs, cassettes and vinyls, eavesdrop a little, and you’re bound to hear a fascinating fact about Roger Daltrey, Iggy Pop or Joey Ramone. If you’ve just discovered Led Zeppelin, the folks at Recycled can tell you what other bands might be up your musical alley. Staying attuned to the songs playing overhead will also inform your musical know-how. Not to mention, most everything in the store is previously owned, so you can continually fill your head up with songs at discount prices. If you decide you made a mistake when you purchased The Best of KC and the Sunshine Band, trade it in at Recycled and use your credit toward something a little more timeless … say, Mozart.

Best freaking art museum in the state

Nevada Museum of Art
160 W. Liberty St.
329-3333

Take a long look at the new Nevada Museum of Art. The casual viewer may think it resembles nothing more than a whale swimming down Liberty Street. Take comfort in knowing that, while Reno plays second fiddle to Las Vegas in a lot of ways, there are no art museums down south or anywhere in the state that compare in any real way to our art museum. Less-than-casual viewers will note how the rooftop gathering place has literally and figuratively turned its back on downtown. Maybe that should read literally, figuratively and appropriately, especially when you consider how much cash the casinos contributed to Reno’s most culturally important building and non-casino tourist attraction.

Most tireless crusaders for Anyone But Bush in 2004

Northern Nevada for Dean
Let me tell you. Richard Nixon would have been in trouble in ’72 if the Nevadans pitching Howard Dean for Prez in 2004 had been working their magic for George McGovern. The Dean folk are everywhere. They’re passing out balloons at ribfests. They’re ribbing folks at balloon fests. They were looking for Mr. Goodbar—and they think they hit the jackpot with Dean. Carissa Snedeker, a queen of the pro-Deans, says she digs the Democrat because he’s promised to work toward universal health care, fiscal responsibility and equal rights for minority-like folks. And, yeah, Dean was kind of a peacenik on recent issues of war. That’s one reason why supporters are multiplying like sea monkeys. “This is not a top-down campaign,” Snedeker says on her Web page at DeanforAmerica.com. “The grassroots—that’s people like you and me—are redefining presidential politics in this country.” So watch your back, Dubya.

Best place to feel superior to the bourgeois

M Home
1400 S. Virginia St., Suite C
324-4663

This furniture gallery is so chic it recently relocated from upscale Mount Rose Street to the new 1970s-colored, very upscale Stremmel Gallery building. When you first walk inside, your instincts will probably say you don’t belong there. Too hip. Too contemporary. Too expensive. The more you look around, though, the more you’ll wish that M Home was your own home, and the more comfortable you’ll feel sprawling out on the salt-and-pepper chaise lounge for a test run. And then all of a sudden you’ll think that maybe $500 isn’t too much to spend on a darling carrot-orange espresso machine. M Home will rouse the interior decorator in you and will inspire you to purchase or recreate every single furnishing on display. There’s not a piece that wouldn’t look ultra cool in anybody’s home.