Dance fever

First things first, let me get my thanks up front. Thanks to Buffy and Jim Bob, as played by Victoria Stafford and “Dead Air” Dave Herold. Victoria is a member of our hotshot sales team. Dave is an evening radio DJ on KTHX.

It’s funny how plans come together. The first version for how we were going to present this summer guide came from our former arts editor, Carli Cutchin. Her idea featured a guy named Joe Bob as a sort of spokesman for summer. From there it evolved to Jim Bob and Biff to Jim Bob and Buffy, the idea being that there are all kinds of people here in town from lots of economic backgrounds, all of whom deserve a certain amount of stereotyping and mockery and admiration, and all of whom like to do different things during summer.

Once the conceit had been lightly poached, we came up with suggestions about who could fit the roles. Vickie was almost too obvious; a couple of us simultaneously came up with the idea, and she gamely agreed. Another guy agreed to be Jim Bob, but he backed out at deadline. We started looking for a replacement, and Bob Grimm suggested Dave. I’d never met the man, but after having no luck making telephone contact, I coincidentally ran into him at the Nevada Museum of Art. He immediately agreed to do the shoot, knew where to get some overalls, and in less than two hours, David Robert had captured our images. How weird is that?

Deidre Pike, Miranda Jesch, Kelley Lang and I wrote the thing; that was the easy part.

I only say this to illustrate the sometimes chaotic nature of this business, not to suggest that we’re quick on our feet or to hint for praise. I think it’s a beautiful improvisational ballet that we do here, and sometimes I like to take a step back and appreciate the dance and the dancers who populate the stage.