Dust off the old portmanteau, check the expiry date of your passport and have someone take care of the cat, we are leaving town this month. Don’t expect the usual travel itinerary, if you travel with DAVID, expect the unusual, the fantastic, an absolute adventure-freak’s adrenaline rush.

This month we globe trot with clowns, join a homegrown medical relief team as they offer aid to a hurricane-ravaged island paradise and stay in state to explore Nevada.

The American landscape of the 1890s provided inspiration for Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World” better known as the New World Symphony. In Dvorak Unwound, pages 42-45, Brian Sodoma explores the programming of the Music Unwound Festival; this year produced the by the Las Vegas Philharmonic in partnership with UNLV. Now in its 2nd year, the festival focuses on (amongst other things) “American” music by way of an examination and a performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Along the way, we also visit the creative mind of a contemporary filmmaker and author. In her profile piece, Pulling the Plug, pages 28-31, Lynn Wexler interviews Emmy-nominated filmmaker and author Tiffany Shlain, who was recently honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century.” Shlain, founder of The Webby Awards, will be a speaker at this year’s Women Empowering Women retreat presented by the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada on Sunday, March 31.

The Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, famous for its mountains, forests, waterfalls, and beaches has long been the destination of choice for discerning vacationers. In September 2017 Category 5 Hurricane Maria changed that all – at least for the time being. Responding to the utter devastation and human loss, aid trickled in. In his piece Island Relief, pages 32-35, Paul Harasim interviewed Las Vegas physician Warren Volker, the founder of the #vegascares4puertorico initiative. We follow him and his intrepid team of medical professionals as they jet down to the Caribbean, this time on a mission of mercy.

In Clown Trip, pages 46-51, Jaq Greenspon shares his experiences, gallivanting around the world with the Las Vegas-based Aga-Boom clown troop. Along with stories of the places they visited we discover the power of silence. These performers are able to break the language barrier one smile at a time. This piece leaves a lot to ponder, for all of us that talk a lot.

Las Vegans have a notorious lack of curiosity about the State they vote in. I have lived in many places in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Nothing quite compares to life in the Entertainment Capital of the World. For those who have the wanderlust, but want to keep it close to home, we encourage you to hit the 95 going north. In Reno-vating a Classic, pages 52-56, Aleza Freeman writes about the past, present, and future of our sister-city, and often rival, Reno. She also gives us the sights and sounds you should look out for on your road-trip there.

Here’s to the madness of March, as always see you in the racks.

Max D. Friedland

max@davidlv.com