Sorry about the lack of posts… I’m preparing for a trip out of town for two weeks to London and Paris. I’ve registered a domain for my blog and when I return I will take it live and update links to point to the new and improved “While Las Vegas Sleeps…” ‘nuttin’ but love for ya, babies….
The proverbial stops have been pulled. This might be the most decked-out I’ve seen Las Vegas since I moved here a little over three years ago. There are special bus wraps regarding the All-Star Game, many buildings have reprographic wraps on them, including, but not limited to Mandalay Bay, the Luxor, and MGM. The Lion in front of MGM and the Statue of Liberty in front of New York, New York are even wearing two-story tall East and West basketball jerseys. In typical Las Vegas “which way is north?” style, the MGM Lion is wearing West (on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard) and Lady Liberty (on the west side) is wearing East. The lion’s cute, though! It looks like his jersey is one of those onesie things little babies wear - looks like it fastens on his rump hehe
There are a lot of people here. I don’t have any idea how many but it’s a lot. One thing that is going to be interesting to see is what the numbers are after the weekend is over. If you walk through a casino, like Mandalay Bay last night, for example, you see tons and tons of people standing around. What you don’t see are tons and tons of people drinking and gambling, which, if you hadn’t heard, is how we keep the lights on ’round here…
I know that a lot of people have been in town the last couple of days doing some of the pre-game exhibitions put on by the NBA and wandering around trying to see celebrities. As the game approaches on Sunday, I would expect that more of the serious gaming type of clientele would start arriving and that will change… hopefully. I’m going out today to take an assessment of the poker tables and see what’s what. Hopefully the gamblers started to arrive last night and are ready to rumble today.
Tags: All-Star Game, cheap Las Vegas, Entertainment, gambling, gaming, NBA, news, poker, Southern NevadaSo my friend, whose name shall be - for the purposes of this particular story - Mister N - relayed this tale to me regarding Thursday night two weeks ago and his experience hanging out with some people that were in Las Vegas partying for a few days. The delay on the story, which I originally heard the next day, was because I had to get a few details verified before I published the article and wanted to make sure I had the story straight. Mister N is a good friend of mine and he had no reason to make the story up and I’ve never had a reason to doubt him… It sounds a bit fantastical and some of you will question it, even as I am still curious about precisely how they pulled it off, but suffice it to say that I believe it to be true and the truth is usually more entertaining than something you can make up… …as tends to be the case with these types of Las Vegas stories about the many crazy experiences my friends and myself find ourselves in and around living out here in Paradise 
Mister N and myself have enjoyed the Wednesday nights at Tabu for several many years. Sometimes they are so-so but usually they’re a pretty good time. Good house music, good vibe.. fun people, for the most part. Two Wednesdays ago Mister N made it out there and I wasn’t in attendance. He met a girl that was there and they had a drink and talked for awhile. She told him she was a professional pilot. They talked on and as it turned out, she was there with her boyfriend and a couple of other guy friends.
Mister N usually hits Tryst on Thursdays, and if I’m going out, I’m usually there too. The people he met at Tabu on Wednesday seemed nice, so he’d given them his number and said he could get them in with him the next night at Tryst, if they wanted to go. So the next day, they called him up and made plans to meet at Tryst.
That next night they went to the club and hung out for awhile. Everyone was partying and having a good time. As the evening evolved and they were thinking about making a move, she asked my friend up to the room they had upstairs in the Wynn with their friends. Mind you, Mister N is thinking she was making some sort of advance, possibly, and had some naughty intent. So naturally, “why, yes, I’d love to” was his response.
They finished their drinks and left the club and made their way up towards their room, which turns out to be on the sixtieth floor of the Wynn - all the way up near the top. One of the guys in the group said “give me my backpack” and disappeared suddenly and then the rest of the group said “okay let’s go.” Mister N was kind of wondering what was going on at that point, and the girl told him just to trust her. He’s always been one to go with the flow when there’s fun to be had, so he shrugged and followed her lead. She ushered him and the rest of the group back into the elevator and quickly went downstairs, through the casino, into the parking garage, and up onto the Wynn’s garage roof level, where they had a white hummer limousine waiting and ready to go. So the girl announces to Mister N “watch this.” A little confused about how they were going up to their room and now they are on the parking garage roof about to leave, Mister N is like “watch what? what’s going on?” She again told him just to trust her on this with a big, mischievous smile on her face.
So they stood there for a few moments and all of a sudden from the top of the building they saw a guy jump. Only a fraction of a second later a parachute opened and the guy quickly descended to the parking garage right by the Hummer where they were standing. In a rush the guy grabbed up the parachute and they all scrambled into the Hummer and the driver took off as every yelled and cheered this guy on. Mister N sat there in disbelief as the girl looked at him and told him, “Welcome to my world…” In classic Vegas style, Mister N said they bolted off the property and drove straight down the Strip to Drai’s for some after-hours partying.
The sad thing about the whole story? I was supposed to be there that night but had been invited to go watch a girl ride the fucking bull at Gilley’s, of all places, and had told her I would go and I hate flaking on people. And then she flaked on me! I’d have loved to have seen that shit! I’d say “maybe next time” but that just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing where there are a lot of “next times.” Alas.
The part of the story that I don’t have a definitive answer for was exactly how this guy got up there to the top. He’d disappeared for a few moments while the girl ushered everyone back downstairs via the elevator. I’m assuming that he somehow figured out how to get to the roof level, perhaps where the guys that clean the windows lower themselves from.. I really don’t know and neither did Mister N, only that he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw this guy BASE jumping off the top of the Wynn Resort and he was unknowingly in the get-away car hehe
I love this damn town!
Tags: bars, Entertainment, gambling, gaming, news, skydiving, Southern Nevada, Tryst, WynnBloggin’ ain’t easy. For a blog to be successful you have to write well and write regularly as a bottom-line commitment if you hope to establish and maintain a good readership. My recent week-and-a-half lapse is evidence of how easily it is for other things in life to override the time needed to carefully pick topics and put together good posts. In the blogosphere, we have quotas to meet. That’s just for those of us currently writing, mind you. I can only imagine how much time and effort must go into planning and producing a regular podcast….
Jon Favreau’s 1996 film “Swingers” starring Favreau himself and Vince Vaughn is a classic and one of my personal favorites. When Trent(Vaughn) tells his sheepish friend Mike what they need and they are about to do is drive to Vegas, Mike asks him if he thinks they can be there by midnight. Trent tells him “Baby, I think we’re gonna be up five hundy by midnight! … Vegas, baby! Vegas!” I must admit I’ve probably shouted those very words after a few shots of tequila a hundred times, myself… So a good while back when I ran across a website and podcast called “Five Hundy By Midnight” I knew I’d found a podcast run by people having a similar discriminating sense for the 24-7-365 Las Vegas aesthetic as I do… 
Seriously though, these guys (Tim and Michelle) have a great podcast covering all sorts of Las Vegas travel, gambling, and business-related information in a pretty funny running commentary-style of show… And they’ve been churning them out every 3 to 7 days or so for over two years… The work and dedication involved with that makes me shrink in my chair. I’d considered doing a Vegas podcast at some point but I’d just be duplicating someone else’s work and probably not be as funny in the process… So here’s to Five Hundy By Midnight! Keep up the good work, guys… Vegas, baby! Vegas!
Subscribe to “Five Hundy By Midnight” over here
Tags: cheap Las Vegas, Conventions, Downtown Las Vegas, Entertainment, gambling, gaming, Nevada politics, Southern Nevada, video poker