Las Vegas Blog: Steve Friess' VEGAS HAPPENS HERE

CityCenter, The Second Pictorial

2009-11-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love that? That's the kind of fun stuff that gives me a thrill when I get to walk around a yet-unopened piece of new Vegas. Here's a closer look at this sign which, I'm sure, is already erected:

There it is, in one sign waiting neatly to be stood up and serve, most of CityCenter and its relationship to the Las Vegas Strip summed up in a directional.

I walked around again on Friday, my second tour in about 15 days as I finish up this weekend a major magazine piece on the project. It is impressive how much more cleaned up and polished the place looked and how many new angles I was able to see of these huge, gleaming buildings. Gleaming is a word you're going to see a lot in reference to CityCenter unless it's cloudy throughout December.

I was able to get into Mandarin Oriental for the first time to see the Sky Lobby. There was still a prohibition on taking any interior photos, but I did get some shots of its front porte cochere:

Here's Mandarin PR queen Alyssa Bushey's nifty construction helmut:

It's been said before by Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.Com and others, but the 23rd floor Sky Lobby at Mandarin is going to be one happening bar. When I walked through, the bar staff was placing those pretty bottles of liquor on glass shelving behind the bar which, too, was in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.

I did ask whether average tourists would be allowed to just wander around the lobby and the answer was actually...not really. A reception person at the first floor will ask you what your business is. You can say you want to have a drink at the bar, but if you're not wearing appropriate attire -- read: those shorts and baseball cap I wore for my $21 burger at Trump last year won't cut it -- they can refuse you entry.

[Aside: VegasTripping.Com offered up this great link to a Mandarin Oriental spa designer's blog with images of what it will look like. It appears to be the first interiors of the space, so if you care, enjoy!]

One of the things I seek out when I'm in CityCenter are moments, angles and locations where I really feel like I could, if I squint the P-Ho out of the frame, imagine I'm really in Manhattan. There's a tall staircase that takes you down to the Mandarin's front door and check out these views looking down and up from the middle of it:

Right? You can see it, yeah? And this view straight up is arty:

There's a glass walkway across the front of CityCenter into the Crystals shopping area, and I thought these views from it were fun:

See, I'm not totally opposed to advertising on the side of buildings. That Gucci sign is hot. But it's also appropriate, not like this crap that MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren himself admitted to me in a recent interview he dislikes, too, but feels dutibound to accept (I still disagree):

One part of the exterior that is more available to see and photograph now versus two weeks ago is some of the public art pieces. For instance, here's the pocket park in the crook between Aria and Crystals where the Henry Moore sculpture sits:

In that image and the following one, we're facing the glass wall behind Aria's registration desk. Here's another view and if you click on it, you might be able to make out Maya Lin's silver -- and fantastic -- Colorado River sculpture:

In an interview I did with Nancy Rubins for this magazine piece I've got going on, she talked about how one of the reasons she wanted to do her soon-to-be-iconic boat-tree sculpture was for the chance to have it cantilever over the road. Here's the best shot I've gotten yet of how it does so:

This classic Claes Oldenburg piece is so whimsical and fun, too:

Finally, I thought the western view was worthwhile, too. As you may know, my father and I are invested in a condo unit in the left-most building you see below:

When that road opens, a flyover of I-15, it should make those buildings more accessible and, perhaps, more valuable as time goes on. Fingers crossed, anyhow.

Yes, I continue to withhold more extensive commentary about the interiors of the various buildings and I'm glad I have done so as some opinions I had two weeks ago have changed -- for better and for worse -- as things have become cleaned up, adorned, appointed and unwrapped. And until real people start flooding the property to actually use these spaces, it's hard to know if anyone's instincts about their functionality is accurate.

That said, I do hope everyone out there is enjoying and appreciating this special period we're in now. It's been a sad time with lots of bad news, and now we're in the throes of the run-up to something we won't see for a long, long time: A major opening. Whether you end up loving or hating CityCenter, I urge you to indulge in its moment. It will be over soon enough and there won't be a whole lot of Christmas Mornings like this for Las Vegas for years to come.

Live shows TODAY!

2009-11-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

Join us 4-5 pm PT for two live episodes of "The Petcast" and then from 5-6 pm PT for "The Strip" featuring my interview with new Vegas headliner Frank Caliendo. Come to LVRocks.Com and listen via your smart phone and chat in the chatroom with other listeners! See ya there!

AWOL Blogger!

2009-11-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone. I've got a deadline on a pretty substantial CityCenter magazine piece to finish up in the next day or so. I'm still Tweeting aplenty because it's easy and quick, but I've just got to get this piece done so I apologize for sparse blogging.

That said, we'll still have an hour of The Petcast and an hour of The Strip tomorrow live at LVRocks.Com from 4-6 p.m. PT. I'll blog the details on that a little later today. So we're not shutting down the store. We're just, if anything, making sure the store is properly capitalized to continue operating!

The Show is UP: Bill Boyd

2009-11-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

Here's this week's show. At the end of it, Miles shouts out for your Vietnamese and Thai favorites (no Lotus of Siam, please), so go ahead and share if you wish in the comments here. Otherwise, the banter this week is especially amusing and we hope you enjoy it all. Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Nov.16: Good Ol' Boyd
[Update 11/17: New link and show audio fixed -sf]

At 77, William S. Boyd could just sit back, count his money and let his children carry on his family’s casino and philanthropic legacies in Nevada. But for Boyd, retirement from running the company means being active in it in other ways, and he remains very much involved in the important decisions of Boyd Gaming. Mr. Boyd speaks to Steve this hour about halting construction of Echelon, making a play for the properties of bankrupt rival Station Casinos and old versus new Vegas.

In banter: Frank Caliendo opens, Steve bets on Cotto for a friend, WSOP ratings are flat, the Rio is NOT all suites, three popular attractions are now neighbors, crazy Bette fans attack and Jim Murren claims he listens to this show.

Links to stuff discussed:

Steve’s blog post and column on the Main Street Station walkabout
Frank Caliendo’s home page
The VegasHappensHere.Com explanation of how the MJ money was spent
Steve’s Bette Midler failure column and WSOP’s ratings drop
The new locations for the Gambler’s Book Shop and Pinball Hall of Fame
See the weird Aubrey O’Day YouTube rant after the first Peepshow performance
The VegasHappensHere.Com rant against the wrap on The Harmon
The first CityCenter pictorial on the blog
The latest from the R-J’s Howard Stutz on the Boyd-Station tussle
The Dave Berns chat on KNPR with Bob Arum about maybe-gay UFC

This week's LVW col: After The Flop

2009-11-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here's this week's LVW col. Let's see if the poker peeps can muster the shock and awe that Batsh*t Bette fans did. -sf

After the Flop
Poker's time in the sun may have come and gone, if recent ratings are any indication By STEVE FRIESS

If there were ever a year when the World Series of Poker should have enjoyed a renewed boost, it was 2009. The stars had aligned in every conceivable way, and grandiose predictions seemed warranted.

“This is going to be the most-watched Final Table in history,” legend Phil Hellmuth predicted to me before it took place in two spurts on November 7 and 9.

And I believed him. It certainly made sense. Alas, he was wrong.

After all the noise in recent weeks about the conclusion of the 40th WSOP Main Event—the $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Texas Hold ’Em tournament viewed as the pinnacle of the game’s prestige—virtually nobody bothered to report the outcome that actually mattered. TV ratings for the two-hour Final Table broadcast on ESPN on November 10 were actually down from the 2008 broadcast. The difference was nominal—this year’s show drew about 1.8 million viewers, and last year’s drew 1.9 million—but still, down is not up. Worse yet, ESPN says the 2009 ratings for the 31-telecast, 15-week season had a 1.0 share, which was even with the 2008 season.

All of which invites this important question: Now can we say that poker has plateaued in the United States?

This notion is one that makes World Series of Poker bosses groan. Skeptical journalists have long been taking note of poker’s relative weakness versus its white-hot years, 2003-2006, when poker TV shows were all the rage and Internet poker blossomed into one of the universe’s all-time most profitable enterprises. In 2006, when 8,773 players entered the World Series of Poker’s Main Event and the top prize hit $12 million, there seemed nothing that could slow the game’s stampede into the hearts and minds of American popular culture.

Poker overlords like to note that Congress put the kibosh on poker’s growth by passing a law in the fall of 2006 severely restricting the ability of most Americans to easily put money into their online poker accounts. This certainly is true and did result in a dramatic drop the following year in WSOP Main Event entrants. In fact, in the three years since, that figure has yet to top even 7,000.

That’s all well and good, but that does not explain the waning interest in watching poker on TV, and it is only via TV that tournament poker can become anything more than a peripheral part of mainstream American culture. Why would one’s inability to play online reduce one’s interest in following the pros? If poker wants to be compared to the big sports leagues, don’t they know that the vast majority of people who watch the NFL or NBA don’t actually play football or basketball?

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com.

How We Spent the Michael Jackson Benefit $$$

2009-11-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

That 2.5-minute report was KVBC's Hetty Chang breaking news of some of what we're doing with the money we raised from "Las Vegas Celebrates The Music of Michael Jackson" at the Palms. Now I'm going to provide a fuller explanation.

First, I'm a wee bit bummed to say that after expenses were factored in, Erich Bergen and I actually did not hit the $100,000 mark I had hoped, believed and said we had. We're still waiting for the check from the concession sellers, but when it's all done we'll have raised a little bit more than $96,000. There were a couple of expenses that I wasn't aware of when I made the previous estimate, but that's just a function of we show-producing newbies having so much to do pulling this off that we didn't always remember to tell one another about some costs.

There's still the potential for more proceeds once we edit and package the DVD version sometime early next year and small donations come in every so often via our site VegasLovesMJ.Com. And, as previously stated, any credible journalist who wishes to review our records, including receipts, is more than welcome to contact me.

To answer one question that had been asked, though, nobody from the Jackson family received a dime for anything. Per union rules we did have to pay the members of our band, but every other performer on the Pearl stage appeared for free. Also, neither Erich nor I received a thin cent of compensation unless you count the box of leftover T-shirts in my garage, and the records we submitted for reimbursement held by the Clark County Public Education Foundation prove this. The money from our various revenue sources -- concessions, tickets, the Paypal donation account and the Moonwalker screening -- goes directly to them and then has been disbursed when we provided receipts and two members of the CCPEF board review them.

All that said, we DID raise $96,000! And here, after some meetings, is what we decided to do with it:

* 30 percent goes to the Artists 4 Kidz program, a partnership between the CCPEF and entertainer Clint Holmes that pairs aspiring student performers to be mentored by professional singers, dancers, musicians and actors of which there are so many in Las Vegas. That's about $28,000.

* $5,000 goes to pay to bring the Canadian group Barrage to perform at Sierra Vista High on April 7 for a concert for which several schools will be selling tickets. The schools keep the proceeds from the tickets and, since past years' shows of similar type have raised as much as $8,000, this arrangement allows our funds to grow. All proceeds of that ticket sales must go to music education programs, per our original edict.

* Eleven schools will receive $2,500 grants for their music departments to use buying instruments, risers, sheet music and whatever else they need. If the principals commit a matching $2,500, then we will give them another $2,500. It's a way to give principals, who have so many demands for discretionary funds, an incentive to push some of it this way. Those schools are Robison Middle School, Monaco Middle School, Findlay Middle School, Cashman Middle School, Swainston Middle School, Knudson Middle School, Cram Middle School, Lyon Middle School, Brown Middle School, Bonanza High and Desert Oasis High. That's $60,000 and, so far as I've heard, all principals are meeting the challenge.

We held back a small bit of the money just in case there are further expenses. In a few months, we'll give that to a 12th school if there's enough. Rick McEnaney, the director of secondary fine arts for the CCSD, chose those schools based on need and provided us with lengthy explanations for each pick.

As Hetty's KVBC report shows, the needs in this district are dire. It is so gratifying to be able to put on a show that Norm Clarke declared the best in Vegas this year and to do actual, tangible good at the same time.

This is Wynn (Warehouse)

2009-11-14T23:58:00.000-08:00

After taping this week's episode of The Strip, I hightailed over to Wynncore to check out something unusual I had picked up from some Twitterer: Wynn Warehouse. Basically, the resort has an overstock of various merchandise and they set it up in the LaFite Ballroom for the public to come and buy and dramatic discounts. It is open Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14 and 15, from 10 am-7 pm. I was told it was the first time they'd done it in at least four years, so it's a rare opportunity.

In fact, I'd never heard of a Strip resort doing any of this -- Tweeter said Station Casinos has done so -- and I thought it might be good for some early holiday shopping. Because I only had 20 minutes, though, I just ran around shooting photos and figured I'd go back tomorrow to buy some more items.

ALSO, they handed out fliers about a separate Wynn sale from Nov. 14-17, 9a-5p, at a real warehouse at 6650 Spencer St. where they offer "fabulous discounts on furniture and restaurant equipment." I may check that out tomorrow, too, because Miles and I remain in love with the comfy red seats at the restaurant now known as Stratta. (What'd it used to be? I'm blanking.)

The bulk of the offerings at Wynncore are clothes, presumably from the various shops on the property, although there are plenty of pieces with "Wynn" on them.

The track suits above were a gift to employees last year, I was told. They only have XL, XXL and XXXL, but they're $9 for the set and I got one for Miles. And I thought these (below) were kinda handsome, the first I believe being part of some Wynn uniform and the second being a sweater:

See how it says $375? Well, according to this legend...

...that means it's going for $50. There are loads of those golf shirts that fell into the $20 range and LeReve and other T-shirts that were as little as $2. As you can see, the place functioned just like Old Navy:

The furnishings ranges from cool stuff like these, uh, $1 pen holders(?), china and, uh, well, what DO that call that curvy thing?

In fact, I'm not sure what many items are including these:

On Twitter, some folks suggested the green thing is some sort of Chinese restaurant table tray but all I'm able to make out a funny-face in the lower part and a paw print in the upper region. No clue on the orange helmutish things.

And these candle holders...

...are not worth even $5, are they?

There are ALL manner of clothes and accessories, even some kinky stuff:

...and this (below) is some sort of Jean Paul Gaultier handbag. Eek. My dog would eat it.

I was sad to see this reminder of failure:

They have notecards, pins and posters from Avenue Q for a dime! Also, they have these Spamalot dolls:

There are lots of knick-knacks, including Wynn pins and magnets -- even some from Macau -- as well as diaries, parasol Xmas ornaments and various Ferrari swag (including a golf putter?):

And, of course, even at Wynn Warehouse there's going to be...

...the seed of an idea for a guest for "The Petcast!" What Wynn store sells such a silly item, I may never know. But it can be yours for...uh...OK. I didn't care enough to look.

Petcast/Strip Are LIVE 4-6 pm PT

2009-11-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late notice, but we'll be live from 4-6 pm at LVRocks.Com doing an hour of The Petcast and then an hour of The Strip. Our guest on the Petcast is Beverly Washburn, the actress who played the little girl in "Old Yeller" way back when, talking about the iconic animal flick. On the Strip, we'll be playing my conversation with Bill Boyd, executive chairman of Boyd Gaming, in which he talks about the Mob, his regrets about Echelon and making a play for Station properties.

Join us in the chat and/or listen live at LVRocks.Com. You can listen through most smart phones even if you're not at your computer via the site! Or wait for the podcasts, which will be available soon.

A CityCenter Tour Pictorial

2009-11-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

I debated what image to use atop this post. I could have shown this cool one below, from the foot of Veer Tower...

...but as a Chinese friend of mine used to say when I lived in Beijing and took his photo with his camera, "Too much sky."

I could have picked this fun one, evidence that Cirque du Soleil is in da hood:

Or certainly, there's this view of the awesome Nancy Rubins suspended-canoes sculpture that is destined to become iconically identified with the $8.5 billion, 67-acre project:

But, alas, I kept coming back -- as I predict most will -- to the heart of it all, and the heart of CityCenter is the same as the heart of everything else in Vegas: The hotel-casino. And a pretty, gleaming, shimmery thing that is, huh?

Yes, I toured CityCenter more than 10 days ago. And I apologize for not posting all of this sooner except that I had a gazillion deadlines, 21 hours of poker to observe and a gag order about internal details of Aria and Vdara that was unofficially lifted when MGM Mirage let Norm Clarke go Tweeting every last detail he saw during a tour last Friday. Kinda silly that I can't talk about the poker-card-sculpture walls for Aria's poker room when Norm gets to describe the "over-sized Elvis belt buckles cover[ing] the exterior"of Viva Elvis and the showroom's "very high proscenium" and decor that "reflects the Elvis era at Kirk Kerkorian's The International rather than contemporary."

What I don't feel comfortable doing as yet, gag order or not, is judging the place. I have some first impressions -- CityCenter does not feel as crowded when you're in it as when you view it from afar, the artwork is really pretty terrific, Aria's casino is surprisingly dark and low-ceiling'd considering how much natural light pours in all over the rest of the place, the Crystals is so massive it runs the risk of feeling empty even when thousands of people are inside and I, unlike Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.Com, find the poker-card sculpture thing cool -- but until the place is actually inhabited, it's hard to be fair. I did find it funny that Cirque waited so long to announce the name of Viva Elvis that the casino signage just says, "Elvis Theater."

Photography wasn't permitted on anyone's tours so far inside the buildings, but there was lots to look at from the outside, too. For instance, I'd seen the 23rd-floor (right?) sky lobby of the Mandarin Oriental from the Strip side, but there's a cut-out on the other side that I believe has some relevance to the electrical and a/c systems in the building.

The circuitous roads throughout the complex gave a bit of an airport terminal feel to the front of Aria:

...and I saw the train system that goes from Bellagio to Monte Carlo is getting tested:

Here's the side of the tram station, which is up there above, under the white canopy:

Some other random vistas are below, including a close-up of the side of Veer, a shot of where part of the swoopy roofing of the Crystals attaches, I think, to the northeastern part of Aria, the front of Aria from ground level and a view to the Strip from the same location:

That last one above looms over a "pocket park," a quiet sitting area where the Henry Moore reclining lady sculpture sits. I wasn't allowed to shoot that, but it was cute.

Clearly, there's still lots left to do before the Dec. 1-16 openings of the various components:

Check out the license plate on the scooter in the parking lot of the buildings along Frank Sinatra Drive where the CityCenter peeps are operating. Appropriate, given that half the place is owned by the UAE gang, right?

What I will say is that Steve Wynn routinely talks about his places having a series of moments that affect you emotionally. Even incomplete, CityCenter has that. And more than any other new project in Vegas probably since the Mirage, what they did here will be debated. And that debate should be fun to observe.

But before we go, just a little homage. See this?

See the orange thing peeking through? No matter how many times the MGM Mirage gang denies it, they succeed with CityCenter in part if they make Bellagio less relevant, less the center of gravity. And that's just a little sad, no?

Bette Midler Fans Unite! Ack!

2009-11-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

Eek! The Bette peeps are pipin' mad over this week's Las Vegas Weekly "Strip Sense" column assessing Bette Midler's disappointing level of community involvement and less-than-Cher-y level of sales. And AEG tells me Bette sold the most tickets for the Colosseum last year which is kind of cheating since she also had the most shows. Oh well. I stand by my point of view. -sf

Bette Midler leaving after seemingly unhappy residency

By STEVE FRIESS

“Oh, yeah, I’m going to love being in Vegas. I’m really looking forward to being a part of the community here.”

Or not.

That was Bette Midler in late 2007, speaking for my podcast in advance of her arrival for The Showgirl Must Go On. She was the first female heir to the throne voluntarily abdicated by Celine Dion at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum.

As you might have heard, the Divine Miss M takes her leave from that gargantuan stage—she remarked semi-jokingly about its size during every performance—on January 31, checking out precisely when her contract is fulfilled and not a day or performance longer. In doing so, she is the first Colosseum resident to have failed to sell out all or most of her shows or to want to extend her stay.

The Caesars and AEG Live folks will stick to happy, upbeat comments, but they must regard Midler’s time at the Colosseum as a disappointment when measured against Dion or even the other two part-time denizens, Elton John and Cher. Ticket prices were lowered and special deals were easy to find just a few months after Midler’s 2008 debut and before the economy completely immolated. One ticket broker (aka “scalper”) told me that near the end he largely stopped stocking Midler seats except for weekend shows.

This all would have surprised me back in 2007 when Midler was en route. The reason I asked her about her likely community involvement was because it was one of the knocks against Celine Dion when she first announced she was coming. I co-wrote a Newsweek piece at the time headlined “She’s Just Not Vegas” that quoted fellow performers doubting Dion would want to be a part of the Vegas entertainment community or citizenry. And while Dion did keep at arm’s length with an insular offstage lifestyle at Lake Las Vegas, she did live and pay taxes here, she did do a litany of charitable things, and her husband in particular was routinely spotted about town. Neither John nor Cher ever did, but they didn’t say they would, either.

Midler, surprisingly given her active social life and philanthropic efforts in New York, made no such efforts. I recall her popping in at the gay nightclub Krave once to stump for Barack Obama in the fall of 2008, but otherwise I can’t think of anything she showed up for or anyone who spotted her doing more than going out to dinner in those two years.

In fact, she committed several flubs.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com.

Maybe My Best Piece This Year

2009-11-11T14:45:00.001-08:00

Earlier this year, I read a fascinating piece in the R-J by Keith Rogers about a North Las Vegas man whose father had perished in World War II. The man never knew his dad, having been born two weeks after his cargo plane crashed in the Himalayas somewhere. But Arizona adventurer Clayton Kuhles had found the plane -- and 14 others -- in an effort that picks up the serious slack in the US government's efforts to recover MIAs from World War II.

Keith's piece properly focused on the local family, but I wanted to know what the Arizona guy's deal was. Turns out, it is beyond fascinating. I had no idea, for instance, that there are 74,000+ MIAs from WWII, many times more than MIAs from more recent conflicts combined.

I'd been after the New York Times to let me do it but was repeatedly told the freelance budget was essentially empty. So, at long last, I did it for Sphere.Com, the AOL News outlet that I'm now writing for about a couple times a week. The money's good, the audience reach is potentially gargantuan and, best of all, I get to tell the stories I passionately want to.

So take a moment to go check this one out. It's a good way to acknowledge Veterans Day.

The Show is UP: Lily Tomlin

2009-11-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

This was a particularly fun one because interviewing someone like Lily Tomlin is not what one would reasonably expect from a journalistic career in Las Vegas. (Others who fit this bill have included Harvey Fierstein, Maya Lin and Dominick Dunne.) I hope you agree I made the most of it. Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Nov.9: Ungilding Lily

She’s conquered Hollywood and Broadway and won over the hearts everywhere in between so at 70, Lily Tomlin has finally decided it’s time to become a Vegas headliner. For nine nights, from Nov. 10-18, the comedienne brings her cast of famous characters – Ernestine the telephone operator and bratty 5-year-old Edith Ann among them – to the stage. Tomlin explains this hour her illustrious career never before included the Strip and chats with Steve about her roles in Desperate Housewives, West Wing, Damages and the X-Files. Plus, she explains why she walked off the Dick Cavett show in 1972 in a feminist huff and why she and her longtime partner Jane Wagner won’t be getting married.

In Banter: A CityCenter tour, Bette's departure, the WSOP final table, Miles' Oval Office adventures, the disgraceful debasing of The Harmon, a Top Chef viewing party and some we-toldja-so's.

Links to stuff discussed:

Get tickets for Lily Tomlin’s MGM Grand shows Nov 10-18
The Advocate's current piece on Lily Tomlin
Time's 1977 cover on Lily Tomlin
Steve’s blog about the Bartolotta viewing party
The VegasHappensHere.Com post about the marathon WSOP session on Saturday
Steve’s pieces on Phil Ivey, Darvin Moon and the outcome of the WSOP
Links to blog posts about Barry Manilow and Viva Elvis long before both were official
The VegasTripping.Com run-in with Wynncore over Wynncore.Com
VegasTripping.Com's perfect response to Wynncore
The charming letter from Steve Wynn to RateVegas.Com from 2003

My $67.48 WSOP-Rio Vegas Adventure

2009-11-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, having watched the World Series of Poker for 17 hours and stayed up all night, I had a hallucination driving home. It was 6 a.m. and I had a seven-mile straight-shot to get there, but there was a man standing on a traffic island who stepped off it. That's all he did and I wasn't near him, but the nightmare scenario went through my mind that I was beyond exhausted and could have killed him if I had been in that lane.

It was very scary, so I just decided to do the right thing and book a room for tonight at the Rio. The final two -- lumberjack Darvin Moon and 21-y/o college dropout Joey Cada -- will play until one of them had all the chips. Could go quickly, could take all night. Who's to know?

So I did something I've not had to do for quite a long time, I just booked a Vegas hotel room. And the thing that stunned me about doing so was there was no competition or variation of price.

Here's the Rio, Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia.

Kayak was the same, as was Hotels.Com. I have $50 in credit at Hotwire from a crap hotel we had in Boston, but I couldn't pick the Rio specifically with them and having to drive anywhere defeats the point.

And all things being equal I, of course, went with Hotels.Com given that they sponsor TheStripPodcast.Com with the special links on this site. But I was kind of amazed that there was no variation whatsoever. $60 plus tax. Period.

How is that possible? Can someone explain that?

Gotta go check in now and nap before the action. Follow it all on Twitter @TheStripPodcast.com.

The M's Limp Top Chef Catch-Up Try

2009-11-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

Now that it's universally agreed that the M Resort has blown its moment in the spotlight by not doing anything Top Chef-ish and places like Mandalay Bay and the Wynn are heavily promoting their involvements, someone over there decided to do this:

That's pretty much it, though. From the home page of the M Resort's site, there's now a link to a page where there's essentially the most minimal information:

"Behind every great show there is a great backdrop. Affirming our commitment and passion for great dining, your very own M Resort Spa Casino served as the production location for BRAVO'S "Top Chef: Las Vegas" Season 6."

And tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks! The page has no music, no video, no indication of why you ought to visit the resort if you're a foodie or a Top Chef fan other than this bland blather:

"Come and see why people rave about our food. No matter what your taste, you're sure to find something to satisfy your cravings. M Resort Spa Casino offers a variety of dining options with some of the world's leading chefs at the helm. From our state-of-the-art Studio B Buffet, with live action cooking studio and over 200 daily dishes where beer and wine are included with lunch and dinner, to Terzetto for the finest steaks and seafood."

Wow. We've got a buffet and a steakhouse. You know, like every Vegas hotel since time immemorial. That breaks the mold.

Now that they've done this...

...it doesn't seem as though they ever were yoked by their Bravo deal in the first place. That's what I'd heard, that they didn't do any blogging or Tweeting or viewing party events or Web mentions of their unique tie to the hottest cooking show on TV because they weren't allowed to do so. Well, the season's still not over yet -- there's about four more shows left -- and there they are going up with this half-hearted effort at capitalizing.

That never made any sense, anyway. There's nothing about the M saying they're the host property that was (a) a secret by the time the show aired or (b) would give away anything about the outcome of the show or even any information about the challenges. If the M was as hamstrung by its deal as they claim, they made a terrible deal. And meanwhile, the Wynn folks have happily told the press that Paul Bartolotta and Alex Stratta are guest judges well in advance of their episodes and I've known for weeks what food the Stratta episode -- airing this Wednesday -- involves. (I don't like to spoil plots, so if you want to know, email me.)

So rather than the M folks being ticked at me for drawing attention to this failure as they did when they called me up after my Las Vegas Weekly column a month ago, they should quit with the excuses and host some events, invite some of the cheftestants to do special nights, offer up menus inspired by the show.

In that vacuum, of course, is the Top Chef Las Vegas Viewing Party that VegasHappensHere.Com and the Las Vegas Weekly are co-hosting on Wednesday from 9-11:30 pm at the Freakin Frog on Maryland Parkway. Admission is free, we'll have prizes and several chefs including Rick Moonen, Alex Stratta, Paul Bartolotta and Jet Tila will be there to watch along.

4 a.m. at the WSOP Final Table

2009-11-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

If these women look exhausted, forgive them. It's now 16 hours since the Final Table resumed play at the Rio for the World Series of Poker. The aim is to whittle down the nine players who survived the field of 6,494 in July down to two and then have those two go heads-up starting at 10 p.m. on Monday.

It's been colorful, amusing and grueling. I know many of you don't care about poker, but the mechanics of the game are never why I find this so intriguing. It's the personalities and the life-changing sums of money involved. The four guys left right now include a 46-year-old lumberjack from a Maryland backwater who was never on a plane before July and has now won at least $2.5 million. The guy lives in a double-wide, won entry by winning a tournament in a West Virginia casino that cost him $130 to enter. That's nuts.

Also nuts? This lady, the self-coronated Poker Queen:

Also ALSO nuts, the fact that the $27 million they're giving to the players this weekend is in mounds on a table with a couple of security guards who look like Barney Fifes:

Yes, that's real and not newspaper (they even make that anymore, anyhow?) filler as the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Howard Stutz thought until I walked him over to take a closer look. Perched atop that mound is this, the only bracelet most men would want to own or wear:

They're being very loose with access for journalists like me who have stage passes...

...to sit on a risers a few feet from the action and behind some cheering sections. The unmanned Mac there is mine:

The guy to my ghost's left in this image is Eric Ramsey with PokerNews.Com, the guy who is writing these hand-by-hand accounts of the action and that's fortunate because even this close, it's hard to tell what's happening. I've gotten some cool shots like this one when Phil Ivey, the acclaimed poker pro who busted out in 7th place, was pondering a move:

...and when Doyle Brunson, the elder statesman of the game, issued the "shuffle-up-and-deal" declaration to begin play so many hours ago.

Here's one of the dealers in earlier times at the table...

...and an up-close look at the face of the special chips they create each year for this event:

Yes, we were young and fresh once, full of energy. Back when we started, there was a huge line in the hallway of spectators who waited hours to get into the Penn & Teller Theater to watch. It's free, but the demand was huge:

During breaks, famous poker pros like Howard Lederer, whom I profiled with his sister Annie Duke in the Boston Globe in 2007, signed autographs.

Some of the eccentrics got to take pictures with the Holly Madison of poker, online pro and [link maybe NSFW] WSOP hostess Lacey Jones:

As you can see, Ms. Jones works hard to please:

To preview the WSOP Final Table, I wrote a profile of Ivey, referred to as the Tiger Woods of Poker because he's an elegantly handsome, biracial break-through player whose astoundingly winning consistency has folks believing they are in the presence of greatness. Unfortunately, Ivey seems to despise the press and only speaks to reporters when he's in some way being compensated or is obligated to do so. Thus, the press was not sorry that he played lousy and riskless and busted out in seventh. To return the favor, Ivey was the only one who snubbed even ESPN when he departed, much to the WSOP's chagrin. He surfaced playing on a poker website within an hour, the very definition of gambling addiction.

Here's the only shot I got of Ivey up close:

Other pros were more accessible. I chatted up Phil Hellmuth and 2008 finalist Dennis Phillips and got these shots of Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu...

Doyle was signing his new book, "The Godfather of Poker," which I picked up to read and possibly review. Not sure what Negreanu was doing with his hand there.

As the night wore on, I did wander the Rio looking for a place to buy some candy and soda to perk me up. I caught a little bit of this silly show in the casino...

...and found myself pelted by beads from the Masquerade in the Sky:

Not sure what to do with them. Put them on TheStripPodcast.Com trivia question prize list, perhaps? Or hang them on the car rearview as everyone seems to in Vegas?

The reason I need to hang in here is because one of the remaining players -- currently in first with a large lead, in fact -- is Antoine Saout, a 25-year-old college dropout from St Martin Des Champs, France, and one of my clients is Agence Presse-France, the French wire service. Clearly the deeper Saout goes, the bigger a story it is over in France. I love how his cheering section has these special scarves they knitted...

...which seems tres francais, non?

But now, after 265 hands and no sign that these four are going to settle it anytime soon, we're all feeling like we could use a little nap.

Those legs happen to belong to poker star Mike Matasow, who decided to lay down on the floor and rest. That sounds nice, but some of us have to work here.

CityCenter's CLASSLESS Move

2009-11-07T15:07:00.001-08:00

They go and commission the great architect Sir Norman Foster to build a hotel-condo called the Harmon. Then, because of construction defects, bad economic foresight and lax oversight, they chop it in half, lose the condos and delay the opening by a year.

And now they turn it into that crassest and lamest of New Vegas tropes, a billboard?

That was taken by @LVSteven This is just so awful. This is what CEO Jim Murren had in mind when he gathered the world's best architects? Here's another view sent in today from @JeffinOKC:

I aready groaned when thee Mandarin Oriental did this...

...but have been reassured that that draping would be removed by opening day.

Pacing Main St W/One O' The Boyds

2009-11-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

Last week, I tagged along with Boyd Gaming founder and Executive Chairman Bill Boyd as he walked one of his properties shaking hands with as many employees as he can find. I had heard he does this regularly, so I wanted to shadow him and did so for this week's Las Vegas Weekly column, which is up now.

While this bit of feel-goodism made for a fine column, I was actually almost as fascinated by the property we toured as by the folksy millionaire making nice with the charges: Main Street Station.

This is not one I have given much thought to since I was a reporter at the Review-Journal in the late 1990s and we would frequently grab lunch at the brew pub because it was near the office. Never, in all those visits, did I notice this...

...or this...

or this:

What I'm trying to show is that 400-room Main Street Station, sitting alone at the northwest corner of what most people consider the downtown Vegas cluster of hotels, is a surprisingly -- possibly bizarrely -- fancy facility. It started life as Church Street Station, a Vegas version of a similarly ornate resort in Orlando, and Boyd Gaming bought it once it was in bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. They renamed it Main Street Station and left most of the design features intact.

Its prior owners invested heavily in adornments, woodwork and antiques. But this being a Vegas casino -- and an unimpressive-looking one in a distressed section of the city -- it is easy to assume these are garish knock-offs. Yet the railcar really was used by Buffalo Bill, the street lamps really did come from 1870s Brussels, the chandelier really was brought over from the Figaro Opera House in Paris and this wild boar behind the bar really did once stand sentry at a public fountain in Nice, France:

I didn't get a good shot of it, but even the gaming tables have some beautiful carved-wood bodies and stands. Oh, and yes, that mosaic-colored rock behind these urinals in the men's room off of the casino actually is a part of the Berlin Wall:

See?

Dunno -- don't WANT to know -- what lurks in the ladies room.

One of the sad parts of the place is that some of its more interesting features aren't really used by the public. There's a second floor that's no longer accessible to guests with these gorgeous pool tables just sitting there:

And the economy has shuttered the Pullman Grille, leaving undiscovered such treasures as these doors removed from George Pullman's mansion in Prairie, Ill.:

So it was kind of a treat to wander the place. They even have a printed self-guided tour to all the antiques and such all over the place.

Not to mention, the place seems to have something else that has suddenly become classic: coin-in slot machines. No, really. Check this out:

When was the last time you saw stacks of these in a Vegas casino?

There were a couple of behind-the-scenes bits that didn't make it into the column, of course. I also found the employee break area kind of funny to look at:

Boyd went in the shake hands with the guys and oddly remarked at how nice it was that they had stools upon which to put their feet.

And since Main Street and the California are joined by a pedestrian bridge and the Cal is known as a haven for Hawaiian travelers who fly in on Boyd's charter flights, it is the rule that employees who have any responsibilities at the Cal wear uniforms that include...

...Hawaiian shirts! Love that!

Petcast + The Strip LIVE on Sat w/LILY TOMLIN

2009-11-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

OK, OK. Lily Tomlin's only on "The Strip." But it's an awesome interview in which we dig in about her role on West Wing, the possible Desperate Housewives spinoff she may star in, the time she walked off the Dick Cavett show in a semi-huff, why she wishes she hadn't been rude to John Wayne and why she and l0ngtime partner Jane Wagner aren't married.

Lily's playing the MGM Grand from Nov. 10-18, her first Vegas performances. Can you believe that lady is 70?

That's from 5-6 pm PT at LVRocks.Com on Saturday. And we'll have an hour of "The Petcast" preceding that from 4-5 p.m. PT with Emily Richmond and guest host Dayvid Figler. (I'll be covering the WSOP Final Table and can only step away from that for an hour for "The Strip.")

Listen live at LVRocks.Com and join in in the chat room. Or just hear the stream via your iPhone or whatever other mobile device you've got that's smart enough to do that. As always, you can grab the podcast when it's available, too. So many ways, no excuses!

Bye Bette + Buffet! Hi, Viva Elvis!

2009-11-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

Some comings and goings today.

* Bette Midler announced today she's done with the Colosseum after two years. Her last show is Jan. 31. Her statement was peculiar in scrambled backhanded slaps at Las Vegas and inscrutable explanation of her future plans:

"What a fabulous two years this has been, and I thank AEG and Caesars Palace for the best partnership a showgirl could imagine. Who knows? These legs have had such a great run in the desert -- it may be time to haul them to places with more humidity and fewer slot machines. But first I need to finish recording my album of the sexiest new love songs that only a showgirl could sing."

Huh? First, what does that "Who knows?" mean? What is that in response to? Was someone asking her a question? Is it "Who knows, I may end up at the Wynn by Labor Day?" Second, really, she had to observe the humidity and slots? Is this news to her? Was she here THAT much that it grated on her? And, third, when she says, "But first" before the shameless plug for her new album, does that mean she has to record the album BEFORE she vacates the effing-arid den of gambling? Couldn't she have come up with anything more clear and graceful?

* Someone who is always clear and graceful? Richard Abowitz. I'm so sorry to report that Richard's "Movable Buffet" blog on the L.A. Times' website has been halted. This comes a year after my weekly celebrity interview pieces for the L.A. Times were halted because the section I was writing was eliminated. So these are tough times for that newspaper, to be sure, but it did seem that every time the L.A. Times does a significant piece on Las Vegas, those pieces rank high on their most-read lists. Hopefully Vegas-obsessed Los Angelinos will find their fill elsewhere, but the more voices the better and this change is really a shame.

* There's good news, though, too. Cirque du Soleil finally unveiled the name of the new show at Aria. It is -- wait for it -- Viva Elvis. What's that? Oh, yeah. That's right. I broke that two months ago. But, still, they're making a big to-do about it. They posted this utterly idiotic video, too, of the cast shouting the name. Here's hoping their dance movements are in better synch:

Here's an interesting tidbit from my CityCenter tour the other day, though. The directional signage inside Aria just reads "Elvis Theater." Kind of silly of Cirque to go to such lengths to keep a non-secret under wraps to the point of not even having the show's name on the signage, especially when that video seems to show that the cast recorded that moment in June in Graceland.

Also, something that would send Steve Wynn through the roof: Scalpers have already set up shop! Check it out! This is the third entry when you Google "Viva Elvis" right now and tickets haven't even gone on sale yet!

Bravo to Top Chef Tasting Menus!

2009-11-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

Having spanked the city for not doing anything interesting with its Top Chef moment, I have to send out kudos to the folks at Wynn Las Vegas' Bartolotta and Mandalay Bay's RM Seafood.

Last week, as I wrote here, James Beard award winner Paul Bartolotta of Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare hosted a small, privaet viewing party to celebrate his turn as guest judge on the show. At the end of the evening, I asked Bartolotta if he'd be creating a tasting menu and he said he doubted it because the challenge he had to judge involved the chef'testants doing some spin on TV dinners based on classic TV shows and, really, that isn't what he does.

Imagine my surprise, then, when today I learned that not only did Bartolotta create a Top Chef tasting menu but that, at $175 a head, it's already a fairly significant success. On Tuesday night, for instance, Bartolotta sold 40 of them or about 13 percent of the 300ish covers. "It's the most expensive menu I've ever merchandised," he told me today. "It just tells you the power of this show. People really want that experience."

Bartolotta said Wynn culinary PR queen Amy Rossetti had already nudged him to do something to extend the Top Chef moment. Then I asked him last week, so he conferred with his wife, who suggested he recreate the menu he whipped up for the Top Chef contestants, a meal seen and drooled over in living rooms across America during the episode.

You might be wondering what you get for $175, which is specifically branded the "Bravo Top Chef Menu" alongside the two other prix fixe meals he already offered. Here's the rundown:

Antipasti

frittura di paranz (assorted fried Mediterranean seafood)
aquadelle (fried tiny silver fish)
gamberi rossi (imperial red shrimp)
calamaretti (tiny baby calamari)
totoni (flying squid)
moleche (Soft shell crabs from the lagoon of Venice)
mazzancole (Caramotte prawns)

Antipasti di Mare

cicala imperiale alla griglia (grilled slipper lobster)
ricciola alla griglia di carbone con salsa acciughe (charcoal-grilled Sicilian amberjack with anchovy sauce)
saute di vongole (clams with tomato and white wine)
triglia alla Ponentina (Ligurian red mullet, Taggiasche olives, roasted peppers)
piovra alla Ligure (Ligurian octopus salad, olive oil, lemon)

Paste

risotto nero (seafood risotto with cuttlefish ink)
penne con ragu di crostacei (penne pasta, lobster, shrimp, langoustines, crab, white wine, tomato)
ravioli di ricotta con caciotta e agnolotti del plin (sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli, pecorino cheese, Marsala wine glaze and classic Piemontese meat ravioli)

Secondi di Mare

branzino in crosta di sale profumato (sea bass in aromatic salt crust with Sicilian citrus sauce)

Sinfonia di dessert

Assortment of plated desserts, gelati, granite and sorbetti

Yum, huh? Yes, extravagant, too. Even in their English translations, I have no idea what half of that is. But he's selling them like whatever hotcakes would be in Italian. Bartolotta figured he'd sell a few, a curiosity. He's as knocked over as anyone that people will/can pay that price in this economy.

I should also note that Rick Moonen, who was a Top Chef Masters contestant this spring and whose RM Seafood and Restaurant RM at Mandalay Bay were the scene of the Restaurant Wars episode that aired Oct. 21, has also added some show-related items to his menus. In Moonen's episode of Top Chef Masters, he ran out of time making a twist on a corn dog that involved shrimp puree and did not serve it to the judges, so he now offers the completed dish on his menu as the Top Chef Moon Doggie.

These are great ways to tie in with the show. Congrats.

An Important Tweak in Wynn Scalping Policy

2009-11-03T22:40:00.000-08:00

Back when I first got on the soapbox about the potential disaster that is the Wynn-Garth Brooks anti-scalper crusade, I wrote this:

I thought of a partial solution, but these rules don't allow for it: Wynn should accept refunds less, say, 10 percent. They know they can resell them, so at least that solves the problem of what people can do if their circumstances change at the last minute, if they get sick or snowed out or whatever.

Well, today I learned from Wynn spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne that, in fact, they have directed all their ticket agents to provide full refunds to anyone at any point prior to the show. Period.

Yes, this is in direct contradiction to the printed rules, but the Wynn folks have decided to provide a release valve to let out some of the pressure. They'll have a standby line for people hoping to buy tickets -- and face value -- on the day of the shows.

Dunne did say that she's not sure whether they'll continue with this return policy beyond the first 20 Garth Brooks shows for which Wynn sold seats last month, but it cannot be understated how important and groundbreaking a concept this is. So far as I know, there are no other shows anywhere in Vegas -- or elsewhere, for that matter -- that provide this sort of flexibility for customers. Now if you're sick or you can't get to Vegas or whatever, you can at least recoup your costs and you don't have to rely on a third-party to help.

I still expect a nightmare on the night of that first Garth Brooks show if, as planned, they invalidate any tickets bought through ticket brokers. People will have spent a lot of money for those tickets and will be enraged when they can't see the show.

But this is certainly a great first step. Let's hope some more common sense prevails here.

Wynn Atty Writes To VegasTripping

2009-11-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sigh.

Irony -- and parody -- may be dead in Vegas.

The fine folks at VegasTripping.Com were working on a funny little parody website, WynnCore.Com. This is all that there is right now...

...but that's also pretty funny -- and deliberately so -- because the WynnLasVegas.Com site is notorious for being inexplicably slow to load.

Well, the Wynn peeps aren't amused and they sent this nastygram (click to enlarge if necessary) to Chuck at VegasTripping.Com:

Basically, they're telling Chuck of VegasTripping: We own it, take it down, give us the keys, thanks a ton, love ya.

Except there is this thing known as parody, it's why Sarah Palin can't sue Tina Fey and it has legal standards. Chuck was the one who coined the merged term "Wynncore" for the Siamese-sister "world famous resort, hotel, casino complexes." That shorn term is now in wide use across the Vegas-centric Web. (Speaking of which, we never hear much of MEGACENTER(tm) anymore, do we, LVS?)

That said, Wynn's lawyers -- taking a much-deserved break from their effort to make it impossible for Grandma to stuff Garth Brooks tickets into Junior's stocking this Christmas -- have deep pockets. Chuck was surprised by the letter and is considering his options.

"The whole thing is just preposterous," he told me tonight. "The artist in me says that we should defend ourselves but the banker in me says we can't afford to. Spending a lot of money to defend a half-baked gag for something with limited appeal that was intended to amuse about 15 people doesn't make any sense, but it is a parody website. What we're doing here is not all that different than what Andy Warhol did with Campbell's soup can."

I think he underestimates the humor potential. The Wynn site, like the man himself, is eccentric and unique, forcing users to wait and having Wynn's dulcetto narrating things as though he's cooing to a lover. The possibilities are endless.

Chuck said he's likely to remove the content but that he isn't planning to just fork over the domain name.

Meanwhile, this incident brought out an absolutely charming bit of Vegasacana from Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.Com. Back in 2003, he received this gem:

Is that not the greatest thing since Ted Stevens' Series of Tubes? Oddly, there's no secretarial notation, so is it really possible Wynn himself typed this? And how is it Hunter didn't remember this back when Robert Earl was making it his life's work to bring him down?

Hunter said on his Twitter (get it?): "I wrote back saying, thanks for your concern but 'sorry, no dice'. Asking for no coverage was a non-starter."

P.S. to Hunter: How about scanning in the whole letterhead? I'm dying to see what the logo looked like back then. That's just FUG. I'm sure Roger Thomas would disavow.

[Full disclosure/Gratuitous Brag: I was VegasTripping.Com's Person of the Year for 2007, the very apex of my career.]

A Mini Podcast-a-Palooza for Monday

2009-11-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

We didn't have a new episode of The Strip this past week because there was no engineer available at LVRocks.Com on Saturday which turned out to be just as well given that I had a mammoth neckache and was given some remarkable meds. But I did sober up long enough to catch up on posting both the latest of The Strip and of my other program, The Petcast.

Firstly, I encourage you to watch our Special Petcast Video show from the SuperZoo convention this fall at Mandalay Bay. We provided video commentary, interviews and product demonstrations. That included Pet Top, the Amazing Treat Machine, Pink Poodle Gourmet & Designs, The Port-A-Poo, the remote-control cat toy, the crazy creative grooming competition and much more! Don't miss the montage of fun photos at the end, too!

I also posted Episode No. 216 in which Emily and I discuss the problems of wild pets being released into the Everglades with Jenny Novak Tinnell of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. You can subscribe to The Petcast via iTunes, of course, to get all the episodes when they're released.

Oh, and I also managed to get "The Strip" updated, too. You can subscribe to that in iTunes, too, or in Zune. So here's that one:

Oct.31: The Top Chef Effect

w/Hubert Keller

Four years ago, a San Francisco chef took a gamble and opened up his San Francisco kitchen to the first challenge of a new Bravo TV show called “Top Chef.” At the time, Hubert Keller came across as tough and grouchy but the show was a hit and his Fleur de Lys in California became a place of intrigue for its fans. Fast forward to this year when warmer, cuddlier Keller appeared first on Top Chef Masters and then in an episode of the current, Las Vegas-set season of the show. Business at Fleur de Lys – long an underperformer at Mandalay Bay – is booming. Keller speaks this hour about that, about what it smelled like to grow up above his family’s bakery in Alsace, France, and about how a Frenchman became one of the biggest things ever in the burger cuisine. Plus, as usual, Steve asked Keller about his food guilty pleasures.

In Banter: Ticket scalping issues, Barry Manilow, the Podcast-a-Palooza, Harrah's dumb iPhone app, DB leaves Wynn, DB opening at Sands in Singapore and who is the Maori Hi Five?

Links to stuff discussed:

Top Chef Vegas
Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas
The Strip Sense column that included Hubert Keller
Our Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza episode
Harrah’s lame iPhone app
Steve Wynn’s gotten political
Jan Jones and others defend Obama
Steve’s column about Obama and Elaine Wynn
A YouTube clip of Lady Elaine from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood
Steve’s Las Vegas Weekly cover story on the D Gate murals
John Curtas of EatingLV.Com breaks news of Daniel Boulud’s Wynn exit
Las Vegas Walk of Stars

My Big Fat IRS Audit: The Details

2009-11-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Uncle Sam gave me a financial colonic this week. And on Saturday, just four days later, I received this heavily redacted (for my own privacy and security as well as that of my IRS agent) but incredibly gratifying letter:

Here's the part that matters:

Yup! I came through with flying colors. "No change!"

That doesn't mean it wasn't a traumatic experience. When the letter came in late July, somehow I had no reaction whatsoever. They wanted to check out my 2007 returns, come on down. Since I began freelancing and requiring the assistance of an accountant a decade ago -- I was doing pieces for US News & World Report and the Advocate, among others, as far back as when I worked at the Review-Journal -- I have retained a gazillion scraps of receipts, driving logs, the works. Come on down.

For some reason, that was about the last thought I gave it for a while. I informed my dad and my accountant, both of whom said it wasn't a surprise given that I work at home for myself and take lots of deductions. Sooner or later, it would happen, they reassured. I set up a date for the IRS agent to come to the house as she requested for Oct. 28 and I moved on to focus on the matters immediately at hand.

And then, last Friday, it dawned on me: This is serious! So when I got to work on getting all the materials organized and making sure everything made sense, Miles asked me on Saturday whether I was nervous and I shrugged him off.

By Sunday, I was confused and frightened and by Monday I was in near-tears in my accountant's office worried about this receipt that I couldn't find or that trip that might have -- but didn't -- result in a story. Since so much of what I do requires me to do research for which I am not paid or ever reimbursed and since a lot of journalism is deciding when there's NOT a story as much as when there is one, I began to see trap doors all over the place that an IRS investigator, should she be so inclined, could fall down.

I could justify every last thing, but how was I to know that my explanations would be accepted? I'm also toiling in a new frontier for the IRS, how to deal with deductions taken for things that bloggers and podcasters do that seem personal but that provide fodder. When your personal and professional lives are so impossible to separate, will the IRS do it for you to your maximum disappointment? It's not a coincidence or an irony that I wrote a piece precisely about that conundrum for Wired.Com in April 2008 -- exactly when I was filing the 2007 returns that the IRS wanted to audit. How many great story ideas have I turned into articles based on personal experiences? And what about the potential stories that editors didn't bite on?

This is crazy-making and, indeed, I went nuts. Literally, I became physically sick. My longtime accountant, Alecia Dewsnup, was amazing, calming me down and showing me exactly what I needed to do, step by step, to illustrate for the IRS that the figures I had provided were accurate. I became so intimately re-familiar with my 2007 life -- the spending, the investments, the pieces I wrote -- that it was all I could think about to write about for this week's Las Vegas Weekly column.

I shut out the whole world. I stopped answering the phone or email, stopped blogging, delayed editing the podcast. There was nothing in my universe beyond the fear that I might be unprepared for some curveball from the IRS agent. The thing that worried me most was that she had also asked for me to have my 2006 and 2008 returns ready and I didn't have the time or emotional ability to be as thorough with those years.

Then it was Wednesday. This is what the kitchen table looked like at 8:30 a.m. when she arrived...

...and then about an hour into the visit:

I was going to call it an "ordeal" rather than a "visit," but it was extremely pleasant. Really. Other than the fact that she couldn't accept coffee or even water from me because of IRS regulations, it was almost a social experience. She was very kind, thanking me for being hospitable and friendly and providing her with some comfortable space to work. Shockingly, some people are rude and difficult and try to make it harder for the taxwoman to do her work. Can you imagine?

The first 20 minutes, in fact, was her explaining why she was there and what she was looking for and almost apologizing for the inconvenience. When I mentioned I had told an editor I couldn't take an assignment at 1 pm, she told me to call him and tell him I could, that she was not there to interfere with my ability to make a living. That was almost a direct quote. I did end up handling that assignment, about the would-be Michael Jackson museum in Gary, Ind.

As it turned out, the reason for this audit was that I had taken a significantly higher travel expense deduction in 2007 versus 2006 and 2008. There happened to be a pretty great explanation for that: I wrote two travel guidebooks in 2007, "Gay Vegas" and the map-intensive one for Random House. Hard to write a travel book without traveling, I always say. And I had included in those deductions a variety of expenses for Vegas hotels, show tickets, meals and other activities.

My IRS agent not only believed me, but she began to very nearly make a case for why I should have written off more. Where, she wondered, was the cost of cab fares and tips that I surely had to pay out? Yes, the IRS lady was concerned I'd short-changed myself. Wow, huh?

We spent a lot of time talking about how I do my work. At one point, strolling through my driving records, she asked about some notations that I had covered a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. That was good for a laugh. I showed her the piece I'd done for The New York Times.

I was surprised to hear her ask, unbidden, about the podcasts. It was clear she had Googled me -- I had Googled her, too, and asked about a prior job to show her so -- which made my accountant's forewarning that maybe I ought to play down the same-sex live-in partner thing a bit irrelevant since she had read about Miles on the blog and knew I had written "Gay Vegas." (My accountant, it should be said, is in business with her gay son and is a champion of gay rights. She just didn't want me to be unfairly discriminated against should I get a real SOB of an agent. About three hours in, I asked my agent about this concern and my agent AGREED that some of her colleagues could have issues with it.)

My agent spent most of her time calculating my income from my bank statements and determining that they accurately reflected what I had declared for my income. And by the time my agent was ready to pack up, she was clearly very satisfied. In fact, she was really embarrassed when I told her about an incident in 2007 when the IRS spontaneously sent me a check for about $1,200 and then, a few days later, wrote to say I owed them the same amount plus penalties. I'd resolved that odd glitch in my favor, but it was one of the reasons why, when she was leaving, she said, "I'm going to go back and tell them to leave this guy alone."

And so that was that. She promised me I'd be getting that letter above and, sure enough, I did.

While it wasn't fun, I did learn something: I've got a rock star of an accountant. My IRS agent could not sing more praises for Alecia's preparation, comparing the returns I presented with those of others she's seen. They were organized and easily readable. "That automatically ups your credibility dramatically," the agent told me. So if you're in need, call her at 702-435-5117 or email accountable[at]accountant.com.

You know what else got me through? Miles, of course. And...

That's Black, sitting in my lap the whole time. Jack snoozed on through, but I'm sure he meant well.

Finally, A Top Chef Vegas Party!

2009-10-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

My Oct. 8 column in the Weekly baffling over why Vegas was blowing its "Top Chef" moment by not doing viewing parties or creating Top Chef menus had a pretty cool impact. Chef Rick Moonen, who appeared in the Oct. 21 episode and was one of the Top Chef Masters contestants in the special mini-season this spring, held a viewing party at his Restaurant RM at Mandalay Bay. I didn't notice until it was too late my emailed invite, but I did receive a note from Rick prior to that telling me that he agreed completely with the column.

I also understand that the M Resort folks were pretty ticked off. That property took it on the chin the most in that column as they're the Top Chef host property in the show but they've done absolutely nothing to market that fact. I've since heard that contractually, they're not allowed.

OK, then. If so, the young property desperate for some national TV exposure made kind of a lame deal with Bravo. It's not a secret in the program that M was the host property and it's not giving away anything about what occurs in the show to invite tourists and locals to come to a viewing party every Thursday. There is no logical reason for Bravo to oppose that.

It also doesn't seem that other resorts are bound to the same constraints. As previously mentioned, Moonen had his viewing party and, last night, Wynn Las Vegas hosted one at Bartolotta di Mare with namesake chef Paul Bartolotta, who was a guest judge. Plus, in a few weeks when Wynn chef Alex Stratta appears, they'll do it again. And the Wynn folks aren't playing coy about the fact that their chefs are in upcoming episodes, either.

While these are not quite a full-fledged, heavily hyped, open-to-the-public viewing events I imagined, it was a lot of fun and very enlightening to spend last night with Bartolotta, his relatives and business associates and some media figures around town in his private banquet room at the restaurant. This "mirror"...

...became a TV:

I Tweeted extensively during the gathering, although AT&T Wireless' coverage was so lousy that I had to run outside to send stuff during the commercial breaks. (The R-J's Norm Clarke, who uses a Blackberry, was able to Tweet away from his seat, the bastard.)

About 35 or 40 folks attended, including the Las Vegas Weekly online goddess Sarah Feldberg, whose piece on the event should be posted any day now. And there was plenty of interesting "Top Chef" scoop from Chef B. For one thing, he groaned loudly and declared "inedible" and "disgusting" the food for the challenge made by Robin Leventhal, the contestant constantly being bashed by the others. Watching himself eating whatever she made on the TV made him squirmy, in fact.

Bartolotta was in the show to judge the Quickfire challenge and eat at the later meal but not to judge the outcome, so he said he didn't know who would win or lose the week. I don't want to give it away, but he agreed with the decision to eliminate the loser who was not the aforementioned Robin. He said of Robin, "She adds drama to show."

This being party thrown at a restaurant for a chef appearing on a cooking show, it shouldn't be a surprise that there was food and that all of it was delicious. The most dramatic was this branzino (sea bass) baked under sea salt, anise, lemon peel, orange peel:

The most amusing food moment was that the waiters were handing out this...

...just as Top Chef star guest Natalie Portman (like me, a Syosset High School alum) telling the cheftestants she's a vegetarian and that their task is to make a meatless dish. Irony!

Not present was Steve Wynn who I caught leaving Bartolotta as I was arriving at about 9 p.m. He didn't seem to know that Chef B was about to have a TV star turn and a party to celebrate it and promised to return for it, but he never did.

Other local figures in attendance included KLAS-TV anchor Denise Valdez and reporter Jonathan Humbert (here with his wife):

The evening ended with a vanilla semifreddo with fig confit and red wine as well as this, a lemon olive oil cake topped by rosemary ice cream:

Bartolotta clearly was bitten by the TV bug. He's appeared often enough, but this adventure into Top Chef clearly had him dreaming of greater stardom. "I really think I could do a show of my own," he told me. It was unclear whether anything specific was in the works.

Oh, and one more thing. Bartolotta's restaurant phone began ringing with people asking for reservations as soon as the show started airing in the East.