Pj Perez (born August 4, 1976) is an American editor, writer, musician and filmmaker, best known for his reports and commentary on

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

culture in such publications as ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''. Perez was the founding

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

of Las Vegas-based ''Racket Magazine''.

Writing

Perez made his first forays into publishing with self-published 'zines and poetry

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

s in the early and mid-1990s while performing on the Las Vegas poetry circuit and singing in short-lived bands before beginning his freelance writing career with ''

Las Vegas CityLife ''Las Vegas CityLife'', founded in August 1996, was the oldest alternative weekly newspaper in Southern Nevada and covered news about the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas. Coverage included news, politics, arts, and culture reporting in prin ...

'' in 2000. After writing for a number of local and regional publications including ''

Las Vegas Weekly ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada, covering Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is published by Greenspun Media Group. The paper was founded in 1992 by James P ...

'' and ''

Las Vegas Mercury ''Las Vegas Mercury'' was an alternative newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 4, 2001 to March 15, 2005. The paper folded when Stephens Media purchased ''Las Vegas CityLife'' and combined the two newspapers. Columnists * James ...

'', Perez was recruited in late 2006 to launch a monthly lifestyle magazine called ''Racket''. After ''Racket'' went on indefinite hiatus, Perez returned to freelance journalism, writing for publications such as ''Six Degrees'' and ''HRH'' magazines. He was previously the Las Vegas Fine Arts Examiner for

Examiner.com Examiner.com was an American news website based in Denver, Colorado, that operated using a network of " pro-am contributors"' for content. It had various local editions with contributors posting city-based items tailored to 238 markets throughou ...

Comics

In April 2009, Perez re-launched his

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

and

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

website, Pop! Goes the Icon, as a boutique publishing label, and began writing and illustrating a weekly

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

, '' The Utopian''. ''The Utopian'' was collected in a trade paperback released in 2011, and a sequel collection called ''The Utopian Foundation'' followed in 2018.

Music

In the late 1990s, Perez played guitar in Morgana Athena, a Las Vegas-based

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

band whose single "E.S.P." was featured on ''Dim View of the Future'', a gothic rock compilation released by a subsidiary of

Triple X Records Triple X Records was a Los Angeles-based record company started by three former employees of the bankrupt Greenworld Distribution: Dean Naleway, Peter Heur and Charley Brown. The label was known for "a fearlessly eclectic catalogue that broke away ...

. He previously played drums and guitar in Las Vegas-based rock band As Yet Unbroken, and most recently, played bass guitar in Vegas-based

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band MOONBOOTS, which released a self-titled

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

record in 2016. Moonboots broke up later that year.

Filmmaking

Perez first ventured into filmmaking with the 2011

48 Hour Film Project The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual film competition in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. The competition has been ac ...

short film ''Sugarhook''. In August 2018, he posted a

teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...

for ''Parkway of Broken Dreams'', a documentary film about the cultural scene that developed near the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

in the early 1990s. ''Parkway of Broken Dreams'' premiered in Las Vegas on October 13, 2021. It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2021 Silver State Film Festival. In 2020, Perez released a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

for a proposed series called ''Notepads & Bar Tabs'', developed with

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Matthew Sorvillo.

Education

Perez graduated from the

with a dual bachelor's degree in journalism and sociology. While at UNLV, he temporarily served as editor in chief of ''The Rebel Yell'', the campus' award-winning newspaper.

Notes

External links

Pj Perez's Official Website

''Parkway of Broken Dreams'' official website

Interview
in ''

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Pj 1976 births Living people American comics creators American editors American male writers Guitarists from Nevada Musicians from Las Vegas 21st-century American guitarists