VEGAS HAPPENS HERE

"The best-paid job in all of Las Vegas"?!?!

2009-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

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appeared in this morning's Review-Journal. (Click on it to see it bigger). I assume it's been appearing for days since the first "auditions" took place on Friday, but I've been derelict in my newspaper reading this week. The "most exciting job" claim reminds me a little bit of the big hullabaloo a few months back about where an Aussie tourism agency put out the call for "the Best Job in the World," blogging about life off the Great Barrier Reef for a time.

That said, this is very, very strange. What could they possibly be hiring for? What would the folks at Panorama possibly need someone to do for which they will earn "up to $800/day" or $242,000 a year? And, even at that level, the boast of this being "the best-paid job in all of Las Vegas" is blatantly untrue. Just ask, say, any of these folks. Plus, the wording here makes it sound like there is one (1) job, not that they're auditioning for a range of things.

Yes, I am an investor, along with my dad and his friend, in a Panorama unit. I've not seen any traffic in board minutes but, to be honest, the thought of this sinkhole of an investment makes me so sick I rarely read the communications. But I will give them a call tomorrow and see what this is all about.

In the meantime, any ideas? Anyone?

This week's LVW Col: #Poker + #Twitter

2009-07-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Within the past year, I've declared both poker and Twitter dead or dying. But now I'm not so sure and I think they have quite a lot to offer one another. Here's this week's "Strip Sense" column on the nexus between two significant pop culture forces working hard not to become pet rocks. -sf

Raise, Fold or ... Tweet
Twitter is giving new life to the World Series of Poker
By STEVE FRIESS (a.k.a. @TheStripPodcast)

On Saturday, when I had planned to hang out at the Rio taking in some World Series of Poker action, I found myself stuck in the squalid Meineke waiting area, learning that my long-term neglect of my brakes and muffler was going to cost me dearly.

There was, however, a bright spot. As it happened, Saturday was the day at the World Series’ $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Texas Hold ’Em Main Event when the “money bubble” burst—when the field was reduced to the point where everyone still in the tournament is guaranteed to receive at least $21,365. In this case, it was when the field of 6,494 players had been whittled to just 648. It’s a pretty fun moment of celebration when the 649th-place player busts out and everyone left cheers their common successes.

I wasn’t there, but I had the next best thing: World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack’s Twitter feed. In real time, @JeffreyPollack was blasting out 140-character-or-less updates on what was happening. It got interesting, too, as the field narrowed and then hung at 649 through 12 tense hands during which nobody was eliminated. None of the details about the game mattered so much as the suspense, that feeling that something important—to someone, anyhow—was about to happen, and that if we couldn’t be there, this was the next best thing.

In the modern poker era, there have been several developments responsible for the game’s enormous growth and maturity. The film Rounders made it cool among college kids. The hole-card camera made it interesting for TV viewers. The Internet made it easy for millions to play. And everyman Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP championship made it an accessible glory for all of the above.

Now, I submit, the rise of tweeting poker players will someday be viewed as another turning point. Twitter solves some important problems for the WSOP. First, it gives people who cannot attend an easy, brief and mobile way to keep up as the action is happening, important because you can usually watch every other sport on TV live during the competition, but not poker, because gambling laws prohibit that. Suddenly, the WSOP isn’t something for just the heartiest fans to follow on poker sites but an event revealing itself as we go about our days.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.com.

The Show is UP: Holly Madison

2009-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm so late getting this up! It's been a very long day with two NYT assignments and lots of MJ benefit conference calls. Now I'm heading out to see Charo at the Riv. Don't be mean about that; I hear she's really good. There's a prospect I'll fall asleep, I'm so exhausted, but I'll grab a Red Bull or something. As for the Holly chat, the live chat room fell silent during this conversation when we played some of it then. When I wondered about the silence, one listener wrote, "This is really surprisingly interesting, so I'm just listening." Cool, huh? Check it out. You know the drill: click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. -sf

July 16: The Smartest Little Dumb Blonde in Vegas

Holly Madison admits it: She wants to be famous. And she doesn’t mind being famous just for being famous – in the tradition of Pam Anderson and Marilyn Monroe, she says – but she wants to try her hand at a few things first. To that end, the ex-Playmate who appeared as Hugh Hefner’s No. 1 babe on “The Girls Next Door” and spent a few months as Criss Angel’s girlfriend, now stars as the innocent-turned-naughty Bo Peep in the Planet Hollywood burlesque production, “Peepshow.” In this conversation, Madison discusses her ambitions, the situations in which she is not comfortable being nude and – as odd as it may sound – what she’s reading right now. You’ll be surprised that it’s not in English.

In Banter: The big MJ tribute benefit concert, Peep v Crazy Horse, WSOP and Twitter, Welcome to LV sign vandals, Prive/PHo fined, Harrah's latest Big Idea, MGM's CSI attraction and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Holly Madison’s website
Tickets for Peepshow
Las Vegas Celebrates The Music of Michael Jackson homepage
Sparky in Las Vegas, who worked up the current VegasLovesMJ.Com site
Daniel Negreanu’s sometimes offensive @RealKidPoker Twitter feed
Cirque’s Elvis show website
Howard Stutz’s piece on the Planet Hollywood’s $500,000 fine
VegasHappensHere.Com on Prive’s lawsuit against Michael Politz
Las Vegas Sun on Harrah’s Project Link
MGM Mirage’s press release on CSI: The Experience
The Review-Journal on the Boulder Dam closure
The LVA item on the closure of Lamborghini in at Vegas
VegasHappensHere.Com on Crazy Horse v Peepshow

WSOP On The Brink...Of A Problem

2009-07-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

One of the charms of the World Series of Poker in recent years has been how international the final tables have been. A Dane won the thing last year, a Laotian immigrant won the year before, of the last 18 final tablists, half resided outside the U.S. They included three Canadians (one Vietnamese-born), two Danes, a Russian, a South African and a Brit.

This year, not so much. As I type, the field of 6,494 is now down to 14. Of those, only two are not Americans, James Akenhead of England and Antione Saout of France.

Now, there's nothing anyone can do about how the cards go and there were more than 100 nations represented. That number was down some from last year, but still.

At the same time, an All-American Final Table kind of throws a kink in the plan. Once they get down to nine finalists, they will pause play until November. The idea there is to create buzz for the players, most of them unknown. The real growth markets for the World Series of Poker are outside of the U.S., in places not already saturated by poker rooms and TV poker shows. Last year's Danish winner Peter Eastgate, for instance, set off a new poker frenzy in Denmark.

Personally, I'm rooting right now for the French guy because I've spent all day trying to get editors of newspapers all over the world interested in letting me write about today's action and the 27 folks left when they began at noon. All were assured to win at least $352,000, so it seemed like any of them making it this far should be a local story in their cities. Yet my only nibble is with the French wire service Agence France-Presse, and ONLY if the French guy makes it. Times are tough in the media biz.

Now, all this is moot if pro Phil Ivey can hang on. He's a major poker star and having that kind of star power will help propel interest during the break. Just look at him. He's got the style of Tiger Woods and Barack Obama. He makes it to November and the WSOP folks will be ecstatic.

Jackson Figure Damaged At Vegas Tussaud's

2009-07-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

I had reached out to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Las Vegas to see about using the Michael Jackson figure in some publicity photos for "Las Vegas Celebrates The Music of Michael Jackson," our upcoming charity tribute concert. We had actually changed our minds about this idea, but the Tussaud's folks got back to me to day to say we could if we wanted to.

In the process, there was some news: The MJ figure is actually "off the floor" until at least tomorrow because ... someone broke his arm.

Amy Helton, the museum's spokeswoman, assured me that it was unintentional, that a guest accidentally did it on Monday and that these things do happen.

"I have three or four figures off the floor at anyone time because they have a scratch on them or they have broken figures or things like that," Helton said. "It certainly wasn't deliberate. They're sturdy figures, but sometimes they get manhandled a little too much."

The MJ figure at Tussaud's (at Venetian) was a place for grieving fans to pay respects in the days after the King of Pop's death. All Tussaud's around the world that had MJ figures placed him out front for non-paying guests to visit him and leave mementos. He remained out front until last Tuesday's memorial, when they returned him to a place inside. Cards, letters and a guestbook are being sent to the Jackson family; other items like stuffed animals are being donated to charity.

Jackson has, not surprisingly, been among the most asked-after figures in the past week since he came back inside. The perennial top favorites are Barack Obama and Elvis Presley, Helton said. Obama shouldn't get too comfortable, though. His popularity is subject to political winds, as was George Bush's when I took my mom and sister last year and saw people taking all sorts of lewd photos with 43. See?

Hey Terry Fator: Keep Your Mouth Shut, Dummy.

2009-07-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

The one thing that everyone who has met and interviewed ventriloquist Terry Fator agreed on -- even when they disagreed on what they thought of his show -- was that he seemed like a truly nice guy. Middle-America nice.

And then this.

It's not that he hit the height of fame and fortune and then dumped his wife of 18 years after, by his own account during earlier interviews after he won "America's Got Talent," she held his hand through those long stretches of anonymity and reassured him of his talent and promise. Nobody can really know what goes on between two people, nor should anyone judge it. It looks like a stereotypical celebrity divorce story, but people do divorce. That's their business.

But, Terry, having your publicist put out a press release Tweeted by Norm Clarke saying you're dating some hot young model who was your assistant? Is that necessary? Catching your soon-to-be-ex-wife unaware? Humiliating her? And then telling KVBC's Alicia Jacobs this:

"Though our marriage is ending, I continue to have a tremendous amount of respect and affection for Melinda. As you can imagine, this is a truly difficult time and it is my hope that everyone will understand that this is a personal matter and respect our privacy."

WTF? Who had the publicist tell everyone about it in the first place? Where's your contrition for this embarrassment being your doing? Is there something in the water for you red-staters that everything's the media's fault?

Dude, listen up. Put down the talking turtle, too.

You're a middle-aged, wildly overpaid -- although now I'm hearing far LESS wildly overpaid than that $100m figure that you've touted and which makes no mathematical sense -- singing ventriloquist. US Weekly is never going to care about you, no matter how weird your love life gets and at the moment it's just conventionally ugly. If you think that cavorting your hookups in the media, if you think that waving over the tabloid press and inviting the world to observe you in this intimate way will be a good thing for your career and your fame, you're wrong. It's creepy. And sad.

And worse, it ruins your brand just as surely as Meg Ryan ruined hers. You're the nice, family-friendly guy. The press-friendly Danny Gans. But first you started infusing your act with unnecessarily partisan digs at the new president and really raunchy, homophobic and derivative Michael Jackson stuff.

Now this. Shut up, pal. Get through the divorce and show the world you respect the woman who made it all possible for you. Learn a lesson or two from what middle-age loser idiots Mark Sanford, John Edwards and John Ensign look like right about now.

Free advice. Worth what it cost.

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/HOLLY MADISON!

2009-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

You think she's just a blond, air-headed, surgically enhanced, talentless fame-seeker. But "Peepshow" Holly Madison wants you to know: She's no air-head. The rest? Well, she'll play along with that. The lovely ex of Hugh Hefner and Criss Angel is our guest tonight and she'll address all that and some more.

Plus, some comings and goings on the Strip, Crazy Horse v Peepshow and much more.

Join us at 7 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com for the live steam, chat room and studio cam. Or wait for the podcast version and subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. Your call.

The latest LVW Col: Three Lousy Ideas

2009-07-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

With all the MJ Concert stuff and my car woes, I forgot to post this past week's Las Vegas Weekly column. Enjoy. -sf

Bad Things Do Come In Threes
By STEVE FRIESS

There are so many great thinkers in Vegas producing so many great ideas. More than in any place else I’ve lived or traveled, the ingenuity and experimentation never ceases. But every once or twice in a while, you see something that makes you go “WTF?” or, at least, “Enough already!” It’s been nearly two years since I’ve done this, so it’s time to take to task the folks behind the worst ideas gripping our fair city.

1. Hetero-homosexuality for fun

Years ago, when I came out to a particularly straight male friend of mine, his first reaction was to ask whether I knew any lesbians who might want to get it on with him. And certainly, to an awful lot of hetero guys, that’s what lesbianism is good for, their own peculiar entertainment. So I shouldn’t have been surprised—and yet somehow I was—when about six months ago a certain breed of Vegas nightclub promotions started proliferating: the girl-on-girl kissing contests.

You can almost hear Beavis and Butt-Head in the meeting when they came up with this idea. “We’ll get some hot babes together, huh-huh, and get ’em to go all lesbolicious on each other, and then we’ll pick the best one, huh-huh, and give ’em a prize. It’ll be, like, awesome, huh-huh!”

Nice. Vegas clubs are now in the business of baiting their prey with live gay-for-pay action.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com.

The MJ Concert Begins To Take Shape

2009-07-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

As I've said on the podcast a few times now, I'm co-producing "Las Vegas Celebrates Michael Jackson," a benefit concert on Aug. 29 at the Pearl at the Palms to raise money for music education in public schools. My partner in this venture, "Jersey Boys" star Erich Bergen, is really the visionary behind all of this as well as the true MJ die-hard, but I jumped in because it seemed like a terrific, timely and dignified way to use this pop-culture moment to do some real good. It also struck me as an idea much too lofty and ambitious for one person to execute, so I offered Erich my help and we formed a team.

We released the first bit of news today -- the date, place and time -- to Norm Clarke of the Review-Journal because Norm was the first to notice Erich's Tweets within days of Jackson's death about wanting to get something like this together. And just now we learned how big an event this could become when Access Hollywood placed a piece about our show atop their site.

There will be plenty more to come, including the lineup of talent -- and it's going to be amazing -- performing from the Jackson songbook and other ancillary Jackson-related events we're hoping to put into place on that day, which would have been the King of Pop's 51st birthday.

Please note: This is a celebration of his music. As I argued in my recent Las Vegas Weekly column, there is a significant difference between venerating the man and appreciating his work. There will be no speeches about Jackson the man at this event. It is all about the songs, the dancing, the art.

If you'd like to help in some capacity, email us at VegasLovesMJ@yahoo.com. Every dime is going to the causes we choose -- VH1's Save the Music Foundation is the leading contender at this point -- so we'll surely need some help in a variety of ways unclear to us as yet! You can also follow us on Twitter at @VegasLovesMJ and a rudimentary site is already in place at VegasLovesMJ.Com, but the fine folks at the Palms will be doing something better than what I threw up there last night in anticipation of Norm's piece. There's also Facebook group.

Should be a busy summer!

Harrah's Embraces The Mid-Market

2009-07-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

Liz Benston of the Las Vegas Sun has a terrific piece in today's newspaper breaking news about Harrah's new plans for the Strip. It's as though someone over there finally realized that (a) there are already enough hotel rooms and that the high-end of the market doesn't need any more options and (b) Harrah's knows mid-market best and there's nothing shameful about admitting that.

The Harrah's solution is something called Project Link, a rendering of which is above courtesy of Harrah's Entertainment. Basically, instead of imploding the Imperial Palace, Harrah's and Flamingo, they want to enhance that section of the Strip as the center of gravity for the mid-market tourist who wants reasonable accommodations and a safe, fun place to drink, party and hookup. (It's fascinating, really, how the east side of the Boulevard from Harrah's to Bally's is for one tier and the west side of the same street from Caesars to Aria, is intended for an entirely different clientele, but I digress.)

As Benston explains it, Project Link would be a pedestrian mall area between the IP and the Flamingo from the Strip to Koval punctuated on the eastern end with a mammoth ferris wheel. Along the way, they envision a corridor of as many as 20 restaurants and bars opening out to the pedestrian area.

There are several reasons why this is a brilliant idea. For one, it just sounds like fun and a space where critical mass can build among those priced out or turned off by the posh nightclub scene. For another, from what I can tell it wouldn't create any new traffic problems and, in fact, could give new relevance to the Las Vegas Monorail, should it still be in business by then. And also, it wouldn't add any new gaming or hotel capacity.

The big loser could be Fremont Street because the ideas and target audiences are similar. But both have their own thing, and Project Link -- they'll have to have a better name for it, of course -- could never pretend to recreate an Old Vegas feel. So there's that.

Seems like a great idea. Too bad debt-overwhelmed Harrah's has no money to get going on it for quite a while and by then, God knows, they'll be on to another Big Idea. And none of this resolves the question of what Harrah's plans to do with its extensive land holdings east of the Strip. You might recall their last Big Idea was to build an unnecessary traffic-disaster of a sports arena behind Bally's.

Titty Smackdown: Crazy Horse v Peepshow

2009-07-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

It is true, this show was not for me. Literally. "Crazy Horse Paris" is a burlesque show at MGM Grand that, ostensibly, exists primarily to turn on heterosexual men. And there's nothing wrong with that, exactly. It's what this city was built on, right?

Except that I feel a little sorry for the heterosexual guys out there. You deserve better.

I was primed to like this show, which I finally got out to see last night because of the publicity stunt that is the blink-and-miss-her guest star gig by ex-"Baywatch" jiggler Carmen Electra. The posters look cool, the showroom was intimate and exotic and so much else about MGM Grand these days is all so classy. Plus, R-J columnist Doug Elfman said the other day when we were prepping to begin our semi-regular sparring match on KNPR that he considered CHP to be the best, most artistic stripper show in the city.

Sigh. I suppose that could be so if you ignore the awful choreography, simplistic tableaus, kaleidoscopic lighting, extremely poor lip-synching and comical costumes. There were some geniunely erotic and creative moments -- there's a scene where we see just the bottom half of a woman with a perfectly formed bottom and legs as she removes her stockings -- but more often it's a bunch of women bopping around in wigs, doing something repetitive until the music ran out. All yours for $60 a seat; what's it cost for a pole dance at Olympic Gardens these days?

And Carmen Electra? That was just...sad. Like a couple of years ago when we all got snookered into seeing the atrocious Hans Klok magic show at P-Ho because Pamela Anderson was in it, we all waited and waited and waited for the former Mrs. Rodman-Navarro to appear and she finally did about halfway through. She showed no boobies at that point, just shook her big hair about and rolled around on a lip-shaped couch. Yawn. She returned a good 20 minutes later to dance with some bendy poles, vulgarly grinding her g-stringed crack into one of them and sort of obliterating the patina of high-class CHP pretends to attain. Oh, and she showed one breast at the end of the misery, clad in a pasty which, I'm now told by every straight male reader of this blog, doesn't count.

Carmen, in the show through this weekend, does return in one final scene fully topless -- and her surgically created boobs are quite lovely with a cute flair to the nipples -- so I guess the vaginally inclined boys got what they wanted and seemed forgiving of how brief the satisfaction was. But I kept feeling sorry for Carmen that, at 37, she was reduced to such tawdriness to pay the mortgage. There could be no other explanation for why she's there other than the money; she sure didn't put a whole lot of pride in making the performance much.

There are dissenting opinions, to be sure. The R-J's Norm Clarke Tweeted during the show: "Carmen is writhing on the red velvet couch in the shape of Michelle Pfeifer's lips. Eat you hearts out Baker Boys." A few moments later, he Tweeted this: "Swinging door routine...they might be the 8 --ok who's counting -- most breathtaking performers on stage at one time in Vegas."

But even Norm seemed to lose interest; his next two Tweets, sent during the show, were about the Vegas location of the Travelocity Travel Gnome. I thought maybe someone else was Tweeting that stuff for him, but then he wrote: "But I digress....back to the Land of Merkin...and the Hot Legs routine."

OK, so you're thinking, "You're GAY. What do you know about shows about sexy women?" Fair enough. Except that I love "Peepshow" at Planet Hollywood. That is a show with high production value, a bit of a story, original music sung live and really creative ways of presenting gorgeous topless women. Also, at the moment, it has another It Girl, Holly Madison, who unlike Carmen is actually in her career prime. Holly's also required to do a little actual dancing and acting, however uncomfortable she may appear doing so.

The irony of all this is that Crazy Horse Paris is more akin to Crazy Girls, the struggling Riviera show whose operators insist remains a viable business despite a nightly audience of about 100 -- and God knows how few of those suckers paid full price -- and a cast larger than the now-gone "An Evening at La Cage." The most important difference between the two, besides the fact that CHP admittedly has more beautiful women, is that Crazy Girls doesn't pretend to be high art. CHP does, but it ain't.

The Show is UP: G-Force Winds

2009-07-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

After last week's blustery Andrew Dice Clay chat, saxophonist Kenny G would seem like a light-hearted antidote. And he is, for the most part. But he also gets a bit crabby and snarky, so it was a good time all around. You know the drill: click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. -sf

July 9: G-Force Winds

On stage and on your stereo, he is laid back and comfortable. But in tonight’s interview, saxophonist Kenny G shows other sides of his persona: arrogant, vain, opinionated and controversial. The musician, who has sold 75 million albums worldwide, also provides a fascinate behind-the-scenes story about his first time on Johnny Carson, discusses Bill Clinton’s influence on the popularity of the sax and has some terse words for audience-scolding showstoppers like Patti LuPone.

Plus, a special INTERVIEW edition of the Trivia Question featuring Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis, aka Curtis Flowers speaking for the first time about his alias.

In Banter: Michael Jackson's memorial, Steve is Hispanic, the WSOP is off and running, The Hangover is mostly Vegasly accurate and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Tickets for Kenny G on July 10-12 at the Orleans
Kenny G’s website
Alan Albert’s restaurant on Yelp
YouTube clips of Paris Jackson, Mariah Carey and Jermaine Jackson at MJ’s memorial
VegasHappensHere.Com on the possible Jackson Fourish show
VegasHappensHere.Com on Steve’s Hispanic excursion
Survey America’s website
Phil Hellmuth’s arrival at the WSOP on YouTube
Doyle Brunson’s Twitter feed
The Review-Journal’s report on the overage at WSOP’s Fourth Day One
Doug Elfman’s column about Carmen Electra in Crazy Horse Paris
Who is new "Peepshow" Aubrey O’Day?
The YouTube clip of the Vegas TV reporter’s Fremont Street tussle
Kenny G’s Guiness Record for holding a note for 45 minutes challenged

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, on TMZ re: Jackson!!!

2009-07-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

This is so great! Click on the image here and zoom ahead to about 1:46ish. The rest is nonsense.

A bevy of MJ Memorial media notes

2009-07-08T11:55:00.001-07:00

The debate over whether all that attention and hullabaloo rendered to the passing of Michael Jackson bores me. What's the point of arguing over it? It is, as a former Texas governor once said outrageously of rape, like the weather: It's gonna happen, so just relax and enjoy it.

And so I -- and millions of others -- did so. I suspect the ratings -- like yesterday's funerary show -- were pretty darn awesome. Jermaine Jackson knocking it out of the park with "Smile"? Made me rethink my objections to a Jackson Fourish show in Vegas, although Wynn is still the wrong property for it. Brooke Shields' "What's with the glove?" moment? Great, although I wish she had said what Jackson's answer was. And that little girl breaking down for her Daddy? Crushing. Classic moment. Prediction: Princes William and Harry will be calling to console the Jackson kids soon, if not already.

The only thing that bugged me was the hyperbole about what an unprecedented to-do this was (The A.P.'s Ted Anthony: "a celebrity spectacle like no other") when, in fact, that was so clearly a ridiculous notion. Princess Diana's death actually paralyzed a nation, raised ridiculous sums of money for charity, involved millions of people cramming along a public route to see her coffin, nearly unseated the world's most prestigious monarchy and resulted an Oscar-winning film. Just imagine what THAT would've been like in the age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Happily, I'm not the only one doing the comparison on this score. In today's Las Vegas Sun, columnist Ron Kantowski compares the MJ Memorial Show to a list of prominent funerals. He pointed out that Ayrton Senna, a Formula One champ from Brazil who died in 1994,
drew 3 million casket-gawkers, and I bet that included virtually no Americans. Pope John Paul II drew 4 million. It seems to me that Ronald Reagan drew more people and at least as much sustained TV coverage. Granted, there wasn't a chance for the public to visit Jackson's casket, but still.

Another tip of the hat is due to the Review-Journal's Jason Bracelin and Mike Blasky. I don't know which one of them wrote this, but the lead sentence of their report on Vegas crowds gathering to watch the memorial yesterday at movie theaters was pitch-perfect and had a wonderful ring to it: "The theater was dark and the mood wasn't any brighter."

Finally, it must be said that my pal (and Miles' KVBC colleague) Alicia Jacobs provided some really cool coverage via Twitter. Say what you want about her as a journalist -- it seems to me she occupies a unique netherland between being a reporter and being a celebrity who uses her connections to take the public into worlds we don't usually get to go -- but her @AliciaJacobs text and photo Tweets from her up-close seat at Staples yesterday added a Vegasy dimension to the thing.

The whole thing has me even more psyched about the MJ Memorial benefit concert @ErichBergen and I are in the process of organizing. Details coming very soon!

And now, a LuPonism dissenter

2009-07-08T10:32:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty vocal in support of Patti LuPone's mission to remind people what is appropriate and polite while watching a live performance such as a concert or musical. In fact, I wish the people on the movie screen could yell at the audience from time to time.

But fair's fair and I asked saxophonist Kenny G about the LuPone moments on this week's episode of "The Strip" podcast, which is already available for download. (Formal posting with links coming.)

Mr G., who will perform this weekend in the same showroom (for double the ticket price, natch) hadn't heard about her Vegas and New York showstopping moments and was appalled. Here's what he said:

"Just the fact that they’ve already paid for the tickets and taken the time out of their lives to make it to the gig is plenty. If you start trying to tell them how to act during the concert, as long as they’re not violent, of course, that’s taking your role as a whatever, an entertainer, to a level that I don’t think that’s fair. What if the guy’s texting because he’s got a sick kid at home and he’s so worried that he may have to leave the concert and take somebody to a hospital? You’re going to interrupt the concert to tell the guy he shouldn’t be doing that?

You never know what’s going on with people. If somebody’s on the telephone, if I’m playing the most beautiful melody and somebody’s leaning over and whispering to somebody instead of looking at me, who knows? Maybe they’re asking that person to marry them? There’s no way that you can ever, as an artist in my opinion, judge an audience like that and stop a concert and embarrass somebody like that. If somebody’s yelling and screaming at you during a concert, well that’s a different story, they’re getting in everybody’s way.

Generally, speaking, yeah, there’s a lot more texting going on, sure. There’s a lot more picture-taking because the days when they say no cameras are over because everybody’s got a cell phone that’s got a camera. You can’t say no cameras. Everybody’s got 'em and everybody’s using them. Instead of lookin’ at you, they’ve got their camera phone between your face and their face and that’s the way it is."

I followed up.

Friess: You’re saying the folks who pay $75 to see you at the Orleans are welcome to take your picture?

Kenny G: They can do whatever they want to do. I don’t care.

So, Orleans ushers, that's the good word: Stand down. Of course, had the Orleans ushers stood UP in enforcing the rules at Patti's show, she wouldn't have needed to take it upon herself to deal with the issue.

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/Kenny G

2009-07-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

You think Kenny G and you think bland, but join us tonight for the live version of "The Strip" and hear some unexpected sides: arrogant, vain, controversial, even a little rude. But Mr. G is also a terrific storyteller who reveals how he flummoxed his own management by switching up what he sang at the last minute on his first "Tonight Show" appearance and has some terse words about the showstopping of one Ms. Patti LuPone. Kenny appears July 10-12 in the same Orleans showroom where LuPone did two weeks ago.

Oh! And the answer to this week's trivia question joins us LIVE to explain his alias.

We get going at 7 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com, where you can hear the live stream, the chat room and view the studio cam.

Come on down or wait for the podcast version, which should be out tomorrow. Subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link.

Breaking: Jackson Bros Envoy Asks About Wynn LV

2009-07-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

Chip Lightman, the late Danny Gans' manager, informed me today that he's been contacted by an envoy for Michael Jackson's surviving brothers about the prospect of a permanent Jackson Brothers show in the vacant Encore showroom at Wynn Las Vegas. The room has been empty since Gans died on May 1, save for a handful of performances by Whoopi, Beyonce and, of course, Scarecrow and Mrs. Larry King.

Lightman noted that the call was extremely preliminary and that it's unclear exactly what the Jacksons have in mind, although it would likely have a serious Michael Jackson tribute component and Jackson choreographer Kenny Ortega's name did come up.

Lightman also noted that there's no telling how Wynn management might react, but I suspect the answer would be a "HELL NO." There just aren't enough people who would shell out the sort of money Steve Wynn would demand for a performance by opportunistic siblings whom The Gloved One spent the second half of his tortured life professionally avoiding.

Chip also mentioned that he and Wynn are waiting to see if Garth Brooks -- who has played two free shows in the room recently -- might want to come out of retirement for a standing production. There's no specific deal on the table, but it's clear Wynn would love to have him. Other names being bandied about in Wynnville: Prince and Mariah Carey.

All of those names sound reasonable. The Jackson Fourish? Not so much.

Soy Esteban!

2009-07-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

That headline, my friends, is about as much Spanish as I know. Years ago, the Review-Journal had a college instructor come to the paper to teach a half-credit basic Spanish class and from that I have retained the ability to declare my name and say the phrases "tarjeta de credito" and "pero, est muy importante." The most Hispanic thing about me are those cute dogs, and we went and stripped them of their ethnic identities by renaming them as Black and Jack when we got them from the pound. They were Cheech and Chong.

Evidently, though, the fine folks at Survey America at Planet Hollywood don't much care. Last night, I earned $6 for being Hispanic! Bravo! (That's Italian, isn't it?)

Survey America is one of those polling outfits that reside at Vegas resorts. There's also one at Venetian and MGM Grand, the logic being that corridors of Las Vegas, with its mass-market draw, are great places to find survey samples of just about any description. So they either pull you in based on whether you appear to fit what they're looking for or you ask the nice lady standing outside in the uniform if there's anything going on.

That's what I did last night. I had just come from observing "Peepshow" rehearsals but had four hours before I was going to see the show itself. So I wandered by, saw the lady outside, and asked if I could do a survey or something. I figured maybe it might be a good Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week. She said yes and led me up a flight of stairs.

As we were ascending, though, she turned to me and said, "You're not Hispanic in any way, are you?" And I said, "No, I sure am not." Her reply: "Eh, it doesn't matter."

At the top of the stairs, I filled out a paper with the heading "Hispanic Shopping Survey" or something like that. The form did not ask whether I was, in fact, of such descent. I was then led into a room with a series of computers and seated at one where I filled out a survey about shopping. Few of the other folks there looked Hispanic either, by the by, but you never can tell. Some Hispanics, apparently, look just like descendants of Austrian-Hungarian Jews!

Our survey was all about my grocery shopping habits with, oddly, an emphasis on my "beef experience." It went on and on about how much fun I have or don't have buying beef, whether this or that store had a good beef selection, how friendly the staff was at the meat counters. Only one question was specifically about Hispanics, though, the one that asked whether Albertsons, Vons, Smiths or Ralph's "really gets needs of Latinos." We have a Mexican-American neighbor named Maria whose leafblower I borrowed (and broke) who had a lot of Albertson's bags in her house, so I gave them good marks.

That was it. When I was done, they gave me a $6 check and I was on my way. No 'buenos noches' or 'hasta la vista' or whatever. I felt modestly guilty accepting the money, so I went and grabbed some dinner at Taco Bell. Does that count?

Norm v Robin, Round Deux

2009-07-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

There are a few updates to report in the mini-feud between Norm Clarke and Robin Leach.

(a) Both have written me to say, in various ways, that they're good friends and it's all good. The Jolly Brit, in fact, mildly chastized me for calling it a "grudge match," but I thought it was clear I was using overblown language -- "exclusive," "breaking," lots of !!!s -- as a sort of tongue-in-cheek homage. Any which way, it became a public thing when Norm took on Robin yesterday on Twitter and Robin would certainly be reporting it if, say, Steve Wyrick took a competitive shot at Lance Burton in this manner, right?

(b) @Robin_Leach has now removed the Tweet that set off the tiff, but the screen shot is still here. @Norm_Clarke, meanwhile, has not Tweeted since he called out his "competitor" -- 17 hours ago and counting.

(c) The Patched One added a splash of gasoline to the matter this morning in his Sunday column by writing that he had Fator's "first interview acknowledging the divorce." Robin told me yesterday that Norm chatted with Fator "after me." Hmmm...

EXCLUSIVE!!! NORM v. ROBIN GRUDGE MATCH!!! BREAKING!!!

2009-07-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here's some internecine media fireworks to admire alongside the crappy shooters with which your asshole neighbor is presently littering your street and freaking out your dog.

My esteemed colleagues, a tiff that has been bubbling up between Norm Clarke and Robin Leach spilled over earlier tonight. Norm, of late, has been increasingly snarky about some of Robin's stuff. Earlier this week, for instance, in his Review-Journal column, writing about a tasteless upcoming Criss Angel trick, the Patched One referred to "Leach, taking a breathless booster tone, ...". That was eyebrow-raising.

Today, though, the gloves came off, sort of, over the news that Mirage ventriloquist Terry Fator is divorcing his wife of 18 years. About three hours ago on his @Norm_Clarke Twitter feed, The Patched One wroth:

If you can't read it, it says: "A competitor is claiming, again, that he has an 'exclusive' -- this time Re Terry Fator's divorce. Vegas Confidential had it hours ago. WTH"

Norm had been Tweeting about the Fator breakup for six hours by then. It didn't take much sleuthing to find this Tweet from @Robin_Leach:

The Jolly Brit wroth: "Breaking News: Top Strip headliner reveals longtime marriage is ending. Full exclusive on VegasDeLuxe.com shortly. He says 'A sad day' ". That was about an hour after Norm started his Tweets, so Norm clearly wins this round.

I caught Norm via text-message to ask him about his decision to go public with his displeasure. He wrote back: "I made a similar comment on Twitter a couple weeks, saying a 'celebrity blogger is claiming an exclusive on a press release that came out yesterday.' I hoped that would nip it in the bud. It didn't."

As I said, this has been festering. I asked Norm why it mattered so much to him.

"It mattered to you when Perez Hilton plagiarized you. It matters when a competitor claims 'exclusives' that appeared first elsewhere. We all try to be professionals, especially when it comes to giving credit where it's due. It's the honorable thing to do."

Fair enough, and for the record both Norm and Robin have routinely given me, this blog and my podcast proper credit. So I have no complaint of my own, but can see what Norm's issue is. I asked Norm if he had tried to address this with Robin privately. This was the exchange:

Norm: I pointed out some examples of "exclusives" that weren't by e-mail a couple months ago. His response was that he wasn't responsible for the headlines.

Friess: Do you buy that?

Norm: No, I don't buy that, not when "exclusive" keeps appearing in the text and tweets. It's tabloidy.

A bit later, Norm texted me again: "Just got a message from RL saying he doesn't write headlines or put it in his copy...so I guess an editor is inserting it in stories and tweets."

Why, if I didn't know better, I'd think Norm was getting snarky again. I don't know how that works, either, given that I've been at events where Robin was Tweeting and it doesn't seem like there are any intermediate steps between his hitting "send" and the Tweet appearing on my phone.

I contacted Robin via email. He's out on the beat right now Tweeting away about Steve Wyrick's Fourth of July publicity stunt. He began by insisting: "The story posted on the Vegas DeLuxe website is not marked exclusive."

Well, no. Not anymore. Here's the earlier screenshot...

...and how it looks now.

Robin also wrote: "I had an exclusive interview with Terry very early this afternoon and Tweeted accordingly at first possible moment on a holiday weekend. When I learned Terry talked with Norm after me and I posted the full interview and story on the website I did not use the word exclusive."

Hmm. That actually raises an interesting question. What *is* an exclusive, anyhow? I mean, Norm broke the story, that's clear, but I wouldn't begrudge Robin from also calling it "breaking" since it is very new news and the proximity of their scoops pretty close.

But the issue here is Robin's use of the term "exclusive." There's a difference between an "exclusive" and an "exclusive interview," isn't there? Robin clearly shouldn't claim he had the Fator news "exclusively," but can he say his interview with Fator was "exclusive"? Sure! Used loosely, that could just mean that Robin had a one-on-one interview with Fator. That gets unwieldy, to be sure -- by that definition, every single interview I conduct one-on-one could be considered an exclusive -- but the TV media does this all the time. Captain Sullenberger had already been on CBS and NBC by the time Fox News called their chat with him "exclusive" when he spoke to them the next day. And, remember, Robin Leach comes out of a TV tradition.

And another thing, in Robin's defense: I have no doubt Robin generally has no idea what Norm reports or when. It's all flying by so fast, who has the time to research everybody else's minute-by-minute work? I've fallen prey to this, too; I've thought I was breaking something that had been buried in a Mike Weatherford column I had missed from weeks earlier. When it is noted, I fix it if it can be verified. (The Review-Journal, by the way, never makes such corrections for anybody once they've claimed to be first on something that they were, in fact, third or fourth on. But that's a whole other thing.)

In any event, the whole lot of it gets very messy. But The Jolly Brit, taking a cue from the gazillion feud-plagued celebs he's quizzed over the eon, insisted it's not.

"Competition is healthy and I'm glad we both got the story," Robin concluded. "I don't know what you're noticing--Both of us doing the best job we can! I have the greatest respect for him."

Norm-Robin photo credit: SteveDacri.Com

The Show is UP: Rolling With Dice

2009-07-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

You've been forewarnd: Parts of this week's interview are not suitable for those with delicate sensibilities. But only parts, and they're carefully noted. Otherwise, you know the drill: click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. -sf

July 2: Rolling With Dice

Hide the kiddies, brace yourself and, if you’re easily offended, you may want to skip at least the second half of this week’s show. Andrew Dice Clay is coming to Vegas in July for another set of shows on the Strip that may portend a headliner residency, so the controversial and foul-mouthed comic is our guest tonight. Is he, as he likes to say, the Elvis of comedy, or is he, as Steve put it in their conversation much to Dice’s annoyance, an overgrown Fonzie? Judge for yourself this hour as they go at it about the 51-year-old’s overactive sex life, about ejecting hecklers and about why he canceled some recent shows in Utah. Plus, hear his version of what happened when Saturday Night Live player Nora Dunn quit the show because he was hosting.

In Banter: The Twin River racino, Michael Jackson’s death, Patti LuPone’s outburst, the Danny Gans 911 call, the tricky Brotastic ad, the survey about Vegas tourist walking habits and Lance Burton looks forward to six more years and (then?) the Monte Carlo’s implosion.

Links to stuff discussed:

Andrew Dice Clay’s website
Steve’s New York Times piece on the bankrupt Rhode Island racino
VegasHappensHere.Com photos of the Twin River casino in RI
Hear the Danny Gans 911 call
Norm Clarke on Lance Burton’s new deal
The billboard for Brotastic/Blue Man Group
Steve’s column on the Patti LuPone text-messaging incident
Hear KNPR on Michael Jackson’s death and his Vegas relevance
Steve’s column on rehabbing MJ’s image
The Las Vegas Sun on Boulder City Hotel’s money woes and the NYT travel on Boulder City
The Las Vegas Sun on the data related to walking tourists and Orbitz hotel bookings
Our episode with Whoopi Goldberg from Nov. 9, 2006
Wikipedia on the difference between a “video lottery terminal” and a slot machine
The L.A. Times’ tasteless blog headline on Billy Mays’ death

This week's LVW Column: Jackson's Comeback

2009-07-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Jackson's comeback
With the King of Pop's tarnished life behind him, Vegas has the chance to rescue his legacy

By STEVE FRIESS

I know you felt it, too, so I’m just going to come right out and say it: Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music.

Until last week’s shocking news of the Gloved One’s death, it was impossible for most people to hear his peculiar falsetto without thinking about what a bizarre, creepy train wreck he had become since the height of his success. The baggage was overwhelming—the molestation accusations, the strange parenting tactics, the startling physical transformation—and it imprisoned and stigmatized the product.

And so, as heartbreaking an ending as it was to a tragic and tortured life, Jackson’s premature death was the first step toward redeeming and restoring to its rightful pop-culture place the Michael Jackson oeuvre.

The rest, I firmly believe, is up to Las Vegas.

Pretty soon, the fawning eulogies and tributes will wind down, and the constant video and radio play will taper off. This burst of appreciation will subside and give way to protracted tales of how exactly he died, what becomes of his estate and his children and what the promoters of his upcoming London comeback concerts knew about his condition as they plowed ahead with the plans. In other words, we will be back in full-on Wacko Jacko territory.

Still, for those of us who loved his music and hope that his legacy consists of something more than just that, something else needs to happen. And that something not only must occur in Las Vegas but it must also be completely disembodied from the bulk of Jackson’s life story.

Read the rest HERE

How To Do A Quirky Wedding Right

2009-07-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

Mmm. Take a look at that wedding cake. Pretty, huh? Clever and unusual? Absolutely. What is it? We'll get back to that.

My cousin, Matt, got married in Old Lyme, Conn., over the weekend to this fantastic woman, Madora. They're real down-to-earth, smart kids with a terrific sense of themselves and everybody in attendance knew these two were perfect for one another. I've only got three first cousins and Matt and I, as the only grandsons on our common side of the family, grew up very close thanks in large part to our wonderful grandmother, who died in 2003.

Miles and I were curious how Matt and Madora would execute their wedding since neither seemed like people given to elaborate ceremony or even for being the centers of attention. They're just not fussy and indulgent like, I dunno, a certain gay couple whose wedding you might have read about on this blog. And yet, Madora's family owns this amazing spread on the Connecticut shore of the Long Island Sound, so the setting was going to be stunning any which way. See?

We probably should've known this was going to be a different -- and only in a good way, I swear -- sort of thing when the invitation came ... without the date on it. An e-mail followed apologizing with a very self-amused and amusing, "Oops, who does that? Heh Heh."

So, how else was this event unusual? Well, the officiant was not a minister or rabbi or even a justice of the peace. It was Matt's childhood friend who works at San Francisco City Hall. And while the bride wore a becoming simple, white, almost traditional sleeveless gown, the groom wore seersucker. Also, the bridesmaids wore...

...whatever they wanted.

They set up a tent next to this real old house with all sorts of secret passageways and such that my nephews and nieces had a grand old time exploring. The servers were all young girls from a local charity whose name I don't recall; Madora decided rather than hiring a professional waitstaff, she'd enlist some teenagers and give the money to their group. Smart. Oh, and dancing took place under a tent on a concrete patio with tunes pumped in from someone's Mac.

Dinner was pizza. But not just any ol' pizza, no. Great pizza. Cooked and served on...

...this firetruck! The Pizzetta Mystic Company's Mobile Pizza Unit. The guy on top made the pizza, that video to the right showed him doing so and the pizza was served on a buffet on that ladder.

It was really amazing pizza -- and a lot of fun. There was also this photo booth on the other side where you can don fire helmuts. Here's me with my 10-year-old niece, Allyson:

Drinks were largely served in bottles out of large buckets filled with ice. And after pizza, there was Haagen Dazs pops. Here's me with my 15-year-old niece, Tziona, having one:

But the kicker was, in fact, the cake. Take another look at it:

Miles and I looked it over and thought maybe it was a big thing of fudge or a massive brownie or ganache, maybe. And then we learned what it actually was. It was, in fact, the strategic arrangement of 16 of these:

Ta-da! Miles and I spent $300 on this thing...

...and it was totally gross. Matt and Madora spent about $50 and it was an (under)statement that fit the entire event. Bravo!!!

Mostly, though, I am so happy for the couple and my aunt and uncle. See how delighted my aunt is?

I've seen that smile before. On my grandmother at another family wedding that took place, eerily, a decade ago this weekend. See?

Congrats to all. We were honored to be there.

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/Andrew Dice Clay

2009-06-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

Is he the Elvis of Comedy...or just an overgrown Fonzie? I asked Andrew Dice Clay that question -- he was not amused -- and much more and we're playing that conversation on this week's episode of "The Strip." Fair warning, though: This interview gets a bit bizarre and x-rated in places.

Why not join us at 7 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com for the live stream, the chat room and the studio cam where you can see Miles and me record the program? And, yes, both of us are finally back in the studio -- without any health complaints and everything! Woo-hoo!

Plenty of Vegas news to mull over, too, from our two-week hiatus -- Michael Jackson, that racino and Lance Burton's announcement today come to mind. Also, the trivia question, the poll, listener feedback and, as always, the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week.

Come on down or wait for the podcast version, which should be out tomorrow. Subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link.

The Nation's First "Racino" Is Bankrupt

2009-06-29T10:21:00.001-07:00

I find it difficult to shut off my journalistic sensors while I travel. For one thing, these tough economic times require me to do as much work as I can generate. For another, from the start of my full-blown freelance life when I lived in China, there's always been a rush that came with finding a story where I'm not expected to do so and then selling it. And yes, Miles has a love-hate relationship with this; it helps provide for us and we end up meeting interesting people and seeing unusual things that ordinary tourists never do. But it also means less time to just bump around and power down.

But, anyhow, this explains how I came to write about the Swiss effort to outlaw cat fur in garments last year, why I witnessed the opening of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem last month and why, over this weekend on our Boston-Rhode Island-Connecticut swing for a family wedding, I covered the turmoil related to the nation's first "racino," Twin River in Lincoln, R.I., for the New York Times.

Here's the lowdown: Twin River opened 61 years ago as a horse track in this bucolic town 15 miles north of Providence. By the 1980s, it was a greyhound track with betting available as well on simulcast races occurring elsewhere. And in 1992, the state and the then-owners, Wembly LLC, agreed to add slot machines. Thus, the advent of the "racino," a word Miles had never heard of before but now finds quite a bit of fun. (?)

The casino part looks like every other casino floor of this sort, see?

There is an itty bitty difference, though. Those 4,700 slot machines are actually known as "video lottery terminals" and are owned by the state. They're administered by the Rhode Island division of Lottery, which keeps 60.08 percent of the revenue and doles out the rest to the owners and other governmental entities.

As I understand it, a VLT is the same as a slot machine except that all of their outcomes are determined by one large central computer for the whole casino which generates random numbers to determine wins. Slot machines, by contrast, are individualized units with their own computerized chips; their outcomes are usually unrelated to other machines. The VLT thing was a way for Rhode Island to add slot machines and call them a form of the lottery without having to get approval of the town of Lincoln to "expand gambling," per state law. The VLT is seen as an addition of an existing gambling practice -- the lottery, y'see.

Oh, and the revenue from these slot-machines-by-another-name now amounts to the third largest source of revenue for Rhode Island behind income and sales taxes.

In 2005, BLB, an investment group that includes the Kerzner folks who own the gigantic Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, bought the joint for $465 million, renamed it Twin River and spent $225 million expanding it. Now it has a larger casino, much more parking, a range of restaurants, a comedy club and a concert venue.

Also, some cute design features:

Oh, yeah. And a greyhound track.

A word about the track before we continue: It's a very weird deal. Twin River is currently obligated by law to have 125 days of live races in order to also have the slot machines. They're also required to give $9 million to the Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association to fund the entire dog-racing industry and spend about $2 million to operate the track even though it only generates about $1.5 million in revenue. Why? Because Rhode Island is a heavily unionized state and the General Assembly feels it's important to force the casino to keep the 225ish jobs associated with the dog races intact.

But Twin River has bigger trouble. BLB overspent on its upgrades and can't afford its debt, so last week they struck a voluntary bankruptcy deal with their lenders and the Rhode Island governor's office. The lenders will forgive nearly $300 million if the debt, BLB will find another operator for the facility and the state will let the casino stay open 24/7 and dump the dog racing.

This solution has made lots of folks mad. Folks like Hal Perry...

...who lives in this house directly across from Twin River:

He put up that sign himself, by the way. He and his other neighbors -- the Twin River property is bordered by residential homes on 1-acre lots -- are upset by the prospect of more noise, traffic and bright lights coming from the casino if it operates 24/7. As it is, it stays open 24 hours Friday-Monday and closes at 2 a.m. on other days.

And, of course, the greyhound folks are mad. They're also powerful; on Friday, the Democratic legislature voted to increase the number of required racing days to 200, a thumb-in-the-eye to the Republican governor and a move that could compromise the agreed-upon bankruptcy deal. Like I said, it's all a weird deal.

Oh! Oh! Oh! And here's the best part! Guess who wants to be the new Twin River operator?

I'll give ya a second and show some fun images of Twin River I shot. Here's the second-floor glassed-in no-smoking gaming area...

...and the carpeting for those casino-carpeting aficionados out there...

...and I'm not real sure why this sign, which reads "Area of Refuge" means...

...or what "sharps" are.

And imagine my surprise when I found Ed, the cover model for my book, "Gay Vegas..."

...dealing virtual blackjack in one of these creepy machines.

I also have a question here. I get the lottery-like aspect of the slot machines. But what about games that involve skill, like video blackjack or poker? How does the central computer control the outcome? How is that not different than the random numbers generated by a lottery?

But anyhow, so who wants to take over Twin River? Why, these folks do!

As it happens, Harrah's has been trying to get into the RI market for years. They wanted to build a $1 billion, full-fledged resort-casino in West Warwick, R.I., but they got rebuffed again and again until the effort finally went down for good in 2006 with a statewide referendum that rejected it.

Now they've got another shot, and Harrah's veep Jan Jones is all over it, confirming talks are ongoing. "We’re interested, very interested," she told me. "We like Rhode Island, we think we understand that market very well. We think Total Rewards would be a significant revenue driver to Twin River."

I wondered why she loves RI so much. It's half the size of Clark County and has just 800,000 residents. Ah, she said, but it's smushed between Massachusetts and Connecticut. And Harrah's nearest casino is in Atlantic City but they have hundreds of thousands of Total Rewards members in New England that they could bring to Lincoln.

What about the dogs?

"I know the dogs are very important to Rhode Islanders," the former politician said. "That’s a decision made by banks and legislatures, but I know Rhode Island feels strongly about their dog tracks."

So Harrah's would turn Twin River into a destination resort with a hotel and all that?

"Well, you couldn’t build a hotel right now, you couldn’t get the zoning," she said. "So all of this is a process. But it's the beginning of the process and the point is that it's an excellent opportunity."

I'm sure folks like Hal Perry are just thrilled to hear that.