Las Vegas Mixtape v12: Night Fever, Atomic Paranoia, and New Asian Food Hall — Track #2: “Atomix” Event, “The Definitive Oppenheimer” @Beverly Theater, downtown

Track #2: “Atomix” Event, “The Definitive Oppenheimer” @Beverly Theater, downtown

With the foul scent of Putin’s nuclear war threats in the air, I was drawn to a special event, “The Definitive Oppenheimer,” hosted last week by the city’s Atomic Museum at downtown’s elegant arthouse cinema/performance space, The Beverly Theater. The evening began as a cocktail mixer in the theater’s lobby and outdoor terrace, followed by a fascinating conversation with Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jon Else, who directed the 1981 documentary “The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb.”

Excerpts from the movie were shown, along with more clips from Else’s other documentary film, “Wonders Are Many” (2007),” about the making of the modern opera “Dr. Atomic,” which premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2005. The Day After Trinity is about the days leading into the first atomic bomb test known as “Trinity.”

The US atomic bomb drops on Japan were horrific, but nuclear war deterrence since Hiroshima/Nagasaki has been successful, Else noted during the Q&A portion. His words helped calm my nerves—somewhat—for a few days until I saw the New York Times’ “Sunday Opinion” cover story (on March 10), urgently sub-headlined “It’s Time To Protest Nuclear War Again.”