Imagine Dragons tops 3 million Twitter followers

The Las Vegas band Imagine Dragons is still radioactive.

It surpassed 3 million followers on Twitter over the weekend, surpassing another hot Las Vegas act, The Killers, which has 2.75 million Twitter followers.

The push past 3 million came on the weekend of the Imagine Dragons' headlining appearance at the Life Is Beautiful festival.

In a Twitter battle between front men, The Killers' Brandon Flowers has 263,000 followers to 167,000 for the Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds.

Boosting the Imagine Dragons' popularity was their megahit, "Radioactive," which peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Released on contemporary radio in April 2013, it broke the record for most weeks spent on Billboard's Hot 100, at 87 weeks.

Moving moment

Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima experienced an a moving moment last week while preparing for the U.S. debut of his 2008 work, "HOTO," inside The Shops at Crystals.

During the installation process, Miyajima "was very emotionally touched because (HOTO) now lives in Crystals," said Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International.

Inspired by the 9/11 tragedies, Miyashima's 18-foot high mirrored pagoda is on display indefinitely at Crystals, the 500,000-square foot retail and entertainment space at CityCenter.

It wasn't lost on Miyashima that Crystals was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, who had a major role in designing 1 World Trade Center at Ground Zero.

"They have collaborated before," said Murren, "and it seems to me (HOTO) was always meant to be here."

HOTO, which means "treasure pagoda," features 3,827 brightly colored LED numbers of various sizes that count down from nine to one.

Murren saw the piece on Naoshima Island, "the art island," on one of his dozens of trips to Japan, eight times alone last year.

"I was just very moved by that piece. It is inspired by Buddhist scripture that values life and the artist, like so many of us, was additionally profoundly scarred and impacted by 9/11.

"And the clash of this ancient belief system of valuing all life with this complicated difficult world that we currently live in. It's one of his seminal pieces."

He added, "We really focus on trying to create for our tourists here to see things they can't see.

"I really enjoy the global hunt for interesting, thought-provoking pieces that are also fun to experience."

On this day

Sept. 28, 2000: A musical version of the bestseller "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" makes its world premiere at the Flamingo. Enough women force their husbands to attend that it runs for nearly a year.

Sept. 29, 2006: Steve Wynn agrees to sell his Picasso painting La Reve for the record price of $139 million. But at his hotel the next day he accidentally pokes a hole in the painting with his elbow. The sale is called off and he decides to keep it. After restoration, the painting is revalued at $85 million. (Thanks to Mike Precker)

Sightings

Actor Nicolas Cage and his wife, Alice, delivering an Escalade full of donated dog and cat food and animal beds to the Furry Friends Food Drive at Cadillac of Las Vegas on Friday. It was a benefit for the Nevada SPCA No-Kill Animal Shelter. ... Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie, celebrating her birthday at Absinthe (Caesars Palace) on Thursday ... Sydney Leroux, a member of the world champion U.S. women's national soccer team, celebrating her bachelorette party with girlfriends on Saturday at Andrea's and Surrender nightclub at Encore (Wynn) ... Stevie Wonder, shopping at the Apple store inside The Forum Shops at Caesars on Friday before his appearance at the Life is Beautiful festival … Actress Sandra Oh, best known for her role as Dr. Christina Yang on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," dining at La Comida on Friday. She took in the festival … Juan Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate, lunching at the Silver Sevens Hotel on Saturday. He was in town for a workshop at the Clark County Library and a reading at Nevada State College … "Pawn Stars" star Rick Harrison and his son, Corey, dining at Andiamo Italian Steakhouse (the D) on Friday.

The punch line

"The Dalai Lama raised some eyebrows during a recent interview when he said that if a future Dalai Lama is female, she would have to be very attractive, otherwise there's 'not much use.' Man, I knew the Dalai Lama believed in reincarnation, but I never realized he'd come back as Donald Trump." – Jimmy Fallon

— Norm Clarke's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. On Twitter: @Norm_Clarke.