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Alta Drive
April 30, 2009
First of all, for those of you who have not heard, this week MGM/Mirage secured financing to complete City Center. We are still waiting on the Fontainebleau's financing issue, but Las Vegas is guaranteed that at least one project will open by the end of the year. I've been over both of these projects ad-nauseum this month, so I have nothing to add other than … I hope they both open and succeed. I also doubt that this completely puts an end to the City Center drama (as a matter of fact there is a construction code issue hanging over the place), but we'll see. Anyway ... A couple of months ago while doing the “neighborhood series” where I toured through one inner-city neighborhood after another, I mentioned that we did have neighborhoods that were upscale, unique, and not completely suburban and cookie-cutter. The two that sprang immediately to mind were Sunrise Mountain and Alta ... Read the full blog post...
Playing The Palazzo
April 29, 2009
Given that there is an absolute dearth of “big” information coming from The Strip over the past couple of months, and given that there is an even larger void of projects which are actually reaching completion, things that would normally be greeted with a collective yawn are now starting to get some interest. Case in point … a new Walgreens opened up directly adjacent to the Palazzo. Yeah, Walgreens. The kind of store you find in any city in the USA. Despite its ubiquity, after I made a live update yesterday, I arrived home to an assortment of emails asking about the place: “Do they have booze?” “Do they have a pharmacy?” “Does it look the same or is there anything unique about it?” I could not answer the questions because none of these things seemed important to me. I simply looked at the outside of the store, snapped a shot, and moved on. As it ... Read the full blog post...
Online Gambling Oppression Continues
Just when you thought that discrimination against online gambling could not possibly get any worse … discrimination against online gambling gets worse. Potentially. The State of Minnesota is trying to block online gambling, not by making it harder to fund accounts, but by forcing ISP's to block gambling sites from being reachable by Minnesota citizens. The State currently has a list of 200 sites that it wants to be completely inaccessible to the people of Minnesota … and they have indicated that they may very well increase that number as time goes on. They are trying to use a “common carrier” designation for ISP's to apply a large amount of sketchy legal theory. Honestly, I weep for this nation. It is now but a shell of what it once stood for, and as the population at large gets more and more used to this insanity, I predict that we are twenty, maybe thirty years ... Read the full blog post...
Treasure Island Tuesday
April 28, 2009
I headed over to Treasure Island this afternoon to hang out for a little while. And by “hang out for a little while”, I mean “ogle women in bikinis”. Who am I kidding … when I say “take my dog to the vet to have an intestinal blockage surgically repaired”, I mean “ogle women in bikinis”. It really does go without saying at this point. For a Tuesday, the crowd was not bad. As a matter of fact, we have some decent mid-week mojo going city-wide. Sure, it's still not a high-rolling crowd, but it's a crowd nonetheless. Treasure Island actually has a reasonably nice pool. By Strip standards, it is quite small, but due to its location on the south side of the tower, it gets plenty of sun, and it is ringed by plenty of chairs, palm trees, and a bar. When there is not a recession going on, TI typically scores pretty high ... Read the full blog post...
Hipster Paradise in the Heart of Downtown
April 27, 2009
Shopping. It's a word that strikes fear into the hearts of men, and instantly erects the nipples of all females who hear it. While I avoid this endeavor whenever possible, there are times when it must be done. When I do shop, I try to do it at the least expensive places possible. As a matter of fact, the shoes that I wear on a day-to-day basis were purchased at the 99 cent store for … 99 cents. I am not joking. They are plastic/rubber, and I can wash the dog excrement and used condoms off of the bottom of them with a garden hose. What more can you ask for? To be honest, I have not purchased “good” clothing for myself in … well … ever. If you ever see me wearing anything nice, or brand name, you can be 100% certain that it was a gift. By a female. Usually out ... Read the full blog post...
Love? No, you're not love, I'm Love
April 26, 2009
It was another beautiful day in fabulous Las Vegas today. The temperature was about 80 degrees and the sun was shining. I’m glad we got a day of relief from that awful wind. I’m sure the wind will be back tomorrow, though. My long lost cousin called today. She’s in Vegas with some friends and asked me to join her at the Monte Carlo Buffet for Sunday Brunch. I didn’t know the Monte Carlo had a buffet. I mean, I’m sure they do, don’t they all? I have never heard anyone mention it. I was expecting the worst. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to park at the Monte Carlo. There was a sign that was trying to direct me to something called ‘temporary parking’. Well, I don’t do temporary. Well, okay, there was this guy I was crazy about and temporary would pretty much sum up my plan there. Apparently, temporary ... Read the full blog post...
Dodging Dice at the Golden Gate
A couple of weeks ago it was the Encore, after that it was the Flamingo, this weekend it has been the Golden Gate. For whatever reason, I tend to go to the same places in spurts. I have been to the Golden Gate three times in the last four days. Now, before I “review” the Golden Gate, I need to preface my comments. People think that I am a critical guy, but this is actually not true. For the most part, I do not like critics. “Critics” are generally people who wish they had talent in a particular field ... don't ... yet still want to be relevant. The role of “critic” was made for this person. Be it art, music, or acting ... most of the critics have one thing in common. They have no appreciable first-hand experience or success in the field that they are critiquing. When Nirvana's “Nevermind” came out, ... Read the full blog post...
Higher Education on The Vegas Strip
There is a very large institution that is adjacent to The Strip, only a couple of miles from my home … and yet it is a place that I generally avoid whenever possible. The institution is not quite as bad as the Clark County Detention Center, but it's not that much better. That place is the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Whereas the CCDC is a prison for the body, UNLV is a prison for the mind. UNLV was established in 1957 and is the primary university in the State of Nevada. There are many other colleges in the State, but it is probably safe to say that UNLV is the only school in Nevada which is immediately recognizable to people on the other side of the state line. In total, about 30,000 people attend the school in some capacity, and it occupies 337 acres in Paradise Township (the same township in which The ... Read the full blog post...
Oh! So that's what a fake one feels like
April 24, 2009
Tonight I went off, off, off, off, off, and off some more, off Broadway. I found myself at the Harmon Theater in the Miracle Mile of Shops over next to Planet Hollywood. I went to see the show Magic's a Drag. You know I'm mourning the loss of all the drag shows. They are closing up right and left. But now we have Magic's a Drag. Which is, you guessed it, a magic show in drag. Their first bit of magic is to be located where Lucky Chengs used to be. The Harmon Theater is actually on Harmon Street. I know, go figure, huh? You think it is in the shopping area of the Miracle Mile like the rest of the theaters, but you have to leave the mall and go out to the street to get into this theater. When you go in, they make you pose with one of the 'girls' ... Read the full blog post...
Rex Makes a New Friend
I went Downtown twice today. Once to hang out with a buddy in his room at the Golden Gate, and again to check out the first day ever of the new Downtown Farmer's Market. It was nice and quiet on Fremont this morning, and on my way home I plugged a quick $5 into a nickel slot at Binion's, then walked away five dollars lighter. It's a slot machine, what are you going to do? Curse yourself for not playing proper strategy? The slot giveth, and the slot taketh away. Today it did the latter. After my morning meeting, I headed back Downtown again this afternoon for the Farmer's Market. Technically, the market doesn't start until next Friday … this was just a dry run with a handful of vendors. I've always been a fan of Farmer's Markets. I've always gone to them in whatever city I lived, and I always wished that Central Las Vegas ... Read the full blog post...
