While Las Vegas Sleeps…

The BlogWorld and New Media Expo is coming to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. As fate would have it, Amy Gahran of Contentious.com found my blog, and she has asked me to sit on a panel at the conference and talk about blogging ethics.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the changing way that media and information is delivered in the 21st century and about blogging, in particular, so I’m really excited to share my opinions with the panel. Okay - I tend to be excited to share my opinion at any time with anyone who will listen, but hey, being a blog ethics panelist carries a bit ‘o cachet! Now I’m officially opinionated!

Seriously, though, the conference looks like it will be really good, in general, and I’m pretty stoked to sit in on a lot of the different sessions. If you are going to make it to BlogWorld, come out and say hi.

Tags: blog, blogging, BlogWorld Expo, convention, Conventions, writer, writing

Perhaps the least well-known member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop passed away last week at his home in Newport Beach at 89 years old. I had meant to mention his passing but it was a hectic week for me, but I wanted to make mention here now. I’m always a bit sentimental when I think about Old Vegas, Classic Vegas, and what it must have been like back then. I rather think I would prefer some things to be how they used to be. I would love to step into the storied Copa Room at The Sands Hotel to hear Dean Martin on a night when the Sands Hotel’s sign read “Dean Martin” and in small letters “Maybe Frank - Maybe Sammy.” It was those iconic images of Las Vegas that really solidified the legend of this place I call home. You have to respect that sort of thing…

When they were filming the original Ocean’s Eleven, the entire Rat Pack crew was on hand at The Sands every night, as legend has it, and Joey Bishop was a regular fixture in that group, being part of the cast for the film. Joey Bishop, as you may or may not recall, had his own television program for a couple of years in the 60’s - well before my time. He was also the guest host of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” more times than anyone else, according to Wikipedia.org. He was a familiar face on The Hollywood Squares, and according to Frank Sinatra, he was “the hub of the big wheel” in their group on stage. Comedy Central lists him in the top 100 stand-up comics of all time. He might not have a list of classic songs like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra did, but he was definitely an integral part of what we now remember as a classic era.

It’s a bit odd that the least-known member of the Rat Pack lasted the longest. Perhaps it was in his personality - the flames that burn the brightest tend not to burn as long…

[ Coincidentally to the timing of his death, the other Sands Hotel and Casino in America - in Atlantic City - was imploded to make way for a new development less than a day after his death. ]

A Time Magazine article about Joey Bishop’s death.

Tags: classic Vegas, Las Vegas shows, Rat Pack, Sands Hotel

For years I’ve enjoyed Downtown Las Vegas in a way that I think is lost on a lot of people. I actually have always kind of dug the old, kitschy vibe, the stuff with a little history, the stuff with a little character (and a lot of characters, at that…) I like walking into casinos (at least the clean ones, anyways) that have low ceilings with antique lighting fixtures and wood paneling - cashier’s cages with cute little brass bars. It’s sort of like the Old West. Do I go down there all the time? No, of course not. Do I feel a sense a security knowing that at least some things never change? Hell yes.

…But things change. Nowhere do things change as often or as quickly as they do here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Downtown Las Vegas has been one of the few places that has remained relatively the same in some of its Fremont Street casinos near or under the Fremont Street Experience. Progress is something that I embrace but at the same time I can appreciate the fact that on Fremont Street the way that some things are old is actually the very way that they are differentiated from any other area in Las Vegas - doing things the old school way is actually part of the experience that is a draw.

When I first started coming out to Las Vegas with my girlfriend, late on slow nights, we’d sometimes find ourselves wanting to go downtown to the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino to grab a couple of the Las Vegas original $.99 shrimp cocktails that they serve there.. The cafe was open 24-7 and they also had little side salads and good sandwiches. After eating a bite, we’d almost invariably end up getting $10-20 in nickels or quarters and playing the slot machines for awhile, having a few Malibu-and-pineapples along the way. Good, cheap fun, that was.

Sometime in the last year or year two the cafe stopped staying open twenty-four hours a day. They close at 3am now, which might sound plenty late, but our schedules, like a lot of people in Las Vegas, usually have us busy until after that time, and for the longest time we always forgot exactly when it was that they closed. We went a few times and the cafe was not open so it was kind of a wasted trip - so we stopped going as much.

Tonight it was earlier and I was with a few friends and we said “hey let’s go get some shrimp cocktails down at the Golden Gate!” So we went. We had our shrimp and drinks and being satisfied, wandered like moths toward the proverbial flame to the slot machines. I got confused for a minute when I went to the change booth that I’ve gone to for years to be directed by a club card lady to the main cashier cage - the change booth had apparently been moved somewhere.

I made my way back to the cashier’s cage and asked for $10 in nickels - I know, I was high rollin’ it tonight, huh? To my dismay she said, “you know our machines don’t take coins, right?” My heart sank. I was kind of speechless so she explained that they were all changed out back in June. Look: if I want to do some serious gaming, $25-100+ a hand blackjack or bigger limit slots - I’ll go to the Bellagio or the Wynn, in all likelihood. There is a level of entertainment you expect from a certain place and you want all the trappings that go with it. Downtown, I just want a quick, cheap, fun time with a few friends. I want to feel the little coins in my fingers; I want to hear them hitting the metal at the bottom of the tray. I want to use “moist towelettes” to clean the silvery coin-goo off of my fingers. I want women with blue hair making me watered down drinks because I know I didn’t pay $18 for the big-as-your-index-finger shrimp cocktail at Raffles Cafe inside Mandalay Bay and if I was being hand-poured a great martini by one of the hotties at Tryst in the Wynn it would be costing me $19 a pop. I can afford to roll however I want to. Tonight, I felt like ballin’ on a budget! Why? Because it’s fun, sometimes! There were four people in my group tonight all ready to spend another $20 or so over the next thirty minutes in their casino. After we found out about the coins being taken away everyone started sort of meandering towards to the parking lot. No one spent a dime. Something tells me those 99 cent shrimp cocktails aren’t going to be paying for themselves for much longer…

I know you are probably thinking “it’s just taking the coins out… It’s not that big of a deal - they are doing it everywhere.” It’s an incremental thing, though! First the cafe, then the coins - who knows what’s next? I just want the old school experience if I am going to go Downtown. If you make the machines and games the same and work the same way as on the Strip, then you just have the same stuff in an old building - which makes it potentially less appealing to people - especially your niche demographic - than say, Bally’s, which is definitely showing it’s age and has lost most of whatever appeal it ever had. You are either brand new - the biggest and the brightest and the best - or you are antique and quaint - or you are irrelevant. Just being kind of average with no unique qualities has no merit. So now there’s no 24-7 $.99 shrimp cocktails. There’s no real coin slot machines - not even in the oldest existing hotel in all of Las Vegas. What’s the draw? …so we probably won’t go as much.

Tags: blackjack, cheap Las Vegas, classic Vegas, Downtown Las Vegas, Entertainment, Fremont Street, gambling, gaming

Okay, granted, I’m big on free food and even bigger on free liquor, but Light Group knows how to launch a new club, er, uh, bar… taqueria?!@#$? It’s more than just a Mexican food restaurant, for sure, but at the end of the day, it’s a restaurant and bar. You would have thought it was the next big thing - like Tao 2.0 or something - pretty funny, actually. For the record, I think all future openings in Las Vegas should also feature red devils on red carpets!

To be honest, we almost didn’t make it to the opening. Okay, to be precise we almost didn’t make into the opening - we made it there and for some reason the guest list which I’d been on for several days with a confirmation email didn’t have my name anywhere on it (or the other three people’s names who were in our party and were alleged to be on the list.) That’s always a bummer. I mean, I’ve stood in a line or two in my day. I’m not above it. I’m not used to it but I don’t mind waiting my turn. The thing was that there was no line to stand in. It was an either you’re on the list or you’re not going in sort of thing. Luckily the door guy got on the phone with someone and cooler heads prevailed (just as I was saying screw this noise and leaving - I might wait in line, but I don’t ever plan to deal with some backwards elitist weirdness at the opening to a Mexican restaurant and tequila bar. There is a limit, right? That would be mine, but I digress…)

After that little bit of awkwardness at the entrance it was all smiles and laughs. What a great little time! Like I had said previously, they had red devils on the red carpet, complete with a movie premiere-style backdrop. Everyone seemed to have a smile on their face, which - I have to say - is a refreshing change of pace from the tired, moody-acting security guys and girls who look like they are just waiting for some key moment when they can leave for some place they think might be hipper or more fun. As it should be, everybody was following my lead - having a great time! Okay, fine - maybe it was just the tequila in my head that made it seem like everyone was following my lead… Or was it??

Patron is a splendid beverage - a wonderful invention at any price. When that price is $0.00 it becomes not only like the nirvana of the adult beverage universe, it creates a lovely sense of chaos, intermingled with random waves of uncontrollable laughter. Great stuff, Patron. I remember trying to shoot some video in the hallway for our forthcoming podcast and having had trouble with the noise level in the hallway we were in. Well, it was mostly trouble with my lips and cheeks - the Patron had numbed them to a level that didn’t support the volume levels I needed to produce to get a decent level on tape, so that was a bit of a no-go. Although, in retrospect, it did give us a break from hanging out at the bar where Danielle was putting the hurt on me. I almost fell in love.

On the way back we found the rather large ice sculpture we had somehow overlooked that was laden with large, yummy shrimp. Those things were great! They kept bringing around all sorts of treats and snacks - mini cupcakes (Kelly has a “mini” fetish.) There was a live band. There was more liquor than even I could possibly drink. In a nutshell - it was done right. Hats off to the Light Group!

An open bar party full of Patron in a casino setting with Christopher in attendance is going to mean one of two things. Either I am going to get creamed on the way out of the casino to the cabstand or I am gonna kill ‘em at the blackjack or craps table. There’s not going to be a middle ground. Unfortunately for me I did not have a lot of cash on me for whatever reason Saturday night. I only had a little but I still managed to take them for a buck-fifty in less than five minutes playing twenty-one.

When I’m on auto-pilot my card sense and card memory is pretty intuitive, usually. I saw a lot of small cards drop right away and knew the deck was quite favorable, though I wasn’t counting cards. They fell the right way and I ended up doing what would normally be very bad plays - splitting 20’s, doubling down on a 7 because the dealer had a 3 showing and I knew she was very likely going to bust, et cetera. I was on fire! I actually got paid for the trouble at the door earlier. Karma loves me. I love Karma. We have a lovely working relationship.

Tags: blackjack, card counting, card sense, club scene, craps, Diablo's Cantina, drinking, food, gambling, gaming, liquor, memory, nightclubs, openings, seafood