Party time

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

As I write this, on Tuesday, July 26, most of the conversations around the office and on social media are all about the political parties’ big national conventions. The Republicans’ convention last week in Cleveland seemed to me, from afar, like a total disaster—what with Melania Trump’s plagiarism and Ted Cruz igniting boos—but somehow Donald Trump got the usual five or six point post-convention bump in the polls, pulling him even or a little ahead of Hillary Clinton.

We’ll see if she gets the same kind of results after the Democrats’ convention in Philadelphia. It seems like there’s a lot of work to be done for the Dems to “unify” their party, as they like to say. Bernie Sanders supporters are still pissed, and the continued leaks of conspiratorial emails among Democratic Party insiders is not helping. But Sanders, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren all made good speeches.

Back here in the Truckee Meadows, if you’re getting burnt out on politics, and you want to just change the channel, I suggest flipping it to The Reno Sessions. My friends Ford Corl, David Ware and Shawn Sariti have been putting together this video series for a few years. It was originally an online series featuring live performances of local bands performing at unique locations around town. It’s a chance to see and hear up-close-and-personal performances from some of the best local bands, like Moondog Matinee, Jelly Bread, Bazooka Zoo, the Sextones and more.

Now the series is also on KNPB, the local PBS affiliate, with episodes that include performances plus conversations with local musicians hosted by Corl and Ware. As I said, these dudes are friends of mine, and I’m honored that they’ve had me on the show a couple of times. They’ve put a lot of work into this series and it’s one of those small but immeasurable things that make it seem like Reno is a real music town. Check it out on KNPB every Saturday night at midnight or online at www.therenosessions.com.