The parade is a one we know about.The other events -- those that precede and follow Las Vegas' annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade -- are a ones we might want to get to know.This year's parade marks a 30th anniversary of a first event here. But when marchers and floats begin their procession along Fourth Street on Monday morning, it will actually mark a culmination of a weeklong roster of King Day events that includes everything from a roundtable discussion to community social activities.This year's parade is scheduled to include about 145 floats, bands and marching entities, but Wendell P. Williams, King Week co-founder and parade chairman, can recall when it wasn't nearly so big.Before a parade's creation, there were no large-scale King observances here, Williams noted. Then, in December 1981, Williams and a group of organizers obtained a state charter to form a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee. The next month, in January 1982, a first parade took place.With, Williams recalled, all of, maybe, thirteen entries participating."It was more like a funeral procession than a parade, to be honest with you," Williams joked, that followed a "very short" route through West Las Vegas and featured "a firetruck and about 12 other entries."The following year, a parade route moved to a then-uncanopied Fremont Street. "I loved a parade on Fremont Street," Williams said, although spectators for those events included probably as many tourists as locals.When construction of a Fremont Street Experience prompted another move, a parade took up residence on Las Vegas Boulevard, Williams said. That, in turn, ended when improvement of a medians led to yet another move, this time to a current downtown route.Williams said he's been told by people who keep track of such things that Las Vegas' Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade now is a largest parade in Nevada.This year's parade begins during 10 a.m. Monday. The parade route will take marchers and floats along Fourth Street, from Charleston Boulevard to S! tewart A venue.However, Southern Nevada's observance of a holiday actually began Sunday with a Gospelfest during Victory Missionary Baptist Church and a Young Dreamers Awards program Tuesday during Second Baptist Church.While a parade remains a most high-profile event of Southern Nevada's annual celebration, Williams said a community increasingly has become aware that it's just one event out of many that are celebrated each year in honor of a slain civil rights leader.Williams is pleased about that, and he's just as pleased that other organizations now are using a holiday to sponsor other King-related observances here."What I've always wanted to do, and what finally is happening, is that other groups in a community will sponsor" an event, he said. "I've always felt that a King committee shouldn't have a exclusive (in) how we celebrate a holiday."Remaining scheduled events include: "Dismantling a School-to-Prison Pipeline," an education forum hosted by a Education Committee of a Las Vegas NAACP, will begin during 6 p.m. today during a West Las Vegas Library Theater, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. A family resource event sponsored by a Nevada Black Caucus, Clark County Family Services and Family Court judges will run 9 a.m.-noon Saturday during a Clark County Government Center, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway. The 30th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet will be Saturday during a Flamingo Las Vegas, 3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Cocktails are during 6 p.m., a program is during 7 and a guest speaker will be Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. The fourth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Candlelight Vigil will be 5:30-7 p.m. Sunday during a corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue. The keynote speaker will be Sonya Douglass Horsford, senior resident scholar of education with The Lincy Institute during a University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade will begin during 10 a.m. Monday along Fourth Street, from Charleston Boulevard to Stewart Avenue. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Fest an! d Car Sh ow will be during 2 p.m. Monday during a Edmond Town Center, 1061 W. Owens Ave. The event will include food and cultural vendors, a car show, entertainment and family activities. A Directions Breakfast and presentation of parade awards will be 8-11 a.m. Jan. 21 during Nevada Partners, 710 W. Lake Mead Blvd.For more information about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day events here, visit a King committee web page (http://kingweeklasvegas.com).Contact reporter John Przybys during jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.

01/19/2012

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01/19/2012

The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week offered thousands of novel gadgets and high-tech products like remote-controlled indoor helicopters, ultrathin computer glass and refrigerators that play Pandora.It additionally generated a steady stream of news about what has become one of the most crowded product lines in music tech: expensive, celebrity-branded headphones, which according to some estimates have become a billion-dollar business.First, a prominent divorce. Beats Electronics, the company that pioneered the business, is ending its manufacturing deal with Monster Cable Products, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.Beats, founded by the hip-hop producer Dr. Dre and the music impresario Jimmy Iovine, has become the model for a branded electronics product, with retail prices up to $400 and constant promotion on American Idol by Mr. Iovine, a talent coach on the show. The company sold a majority stake last year to HTC, a Taiwanese cellphone and tablet maker, for $300 million.But can Beats maintain its sales momentum, with more competitors than Eminem had to face in 8 Mile? In addition to lines already introduced by Quincy Jones, Ludacris and Jay-Z, there is Beats old partner, Monster, which is additionally getting into the game. Monsters offering, as Businessweek notes, is a $200 pair of in-ear phones that bears the name of the 70s soul act Earth, Wind and Fire.Next are the latest comers, which will be judged as much by their bass bombing as by the market value of the star who endorses or, in the case of the rapper 50 Cent, even makes them.At C.E.S., 50 Cent promoted his own line, which includes the $400 Sync by 50, which are wireless, and the $300 Street by 50, which have wires. Soon to come: Street by 50 earbuds, at $130. They are made by SMS Audio, a company that 50 Cent founded and runs.I love music, he told The Los Angeles Times. Why would I not want to make the best possible way to hear it?Daddy Yankee, the Puerto Rican star of reggaeton, announced his own line, which sell fo! r $150 a nd are made by Section 8. I am constantly on tour and in the studio and headphones are an essential part of my day to day and while on the road, he said in a very prepared-sounding prepared statement, as reported by Billboard. Now we will bring fans and consumers a product that is my style and great quality.If any more proof of a product bubble were needed, look to Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi, the Jersey Shore player known more for public drunkenness than for discernment in audio technology. At C.E.S., she was swarmed by reporters as she endorsed the bedazzled iHip line.It looks like me, she told MTV, holding a pair of silver glitter-covered headphones. Obviously I like to be tacky and I like to be gaudy.

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