It looks like I was right about Michael Jackson striking out with his alleged search for a headlining gig in Vegas.  Fox News is reporting that Jackson's family held a secret meeting with the Gloved One in Vegas last week. Apparently, the occasion for the meeting was to sort of point out to Michael Jackson that he is unemployed, has been for a long time and looks to remain so for the foreseeable future. The proposed solution: a Jackson family tour! Of course, the world is probably not waiting for the comebacks of Tito and Jermaine. But this time Janet Jackson would be on board, too. The mix of Michael and Janet, especially singing duets, certainly would excite some ticket sales. In all it is not an unreasonable plan for the two former hit machines whose music the public seems to have lost interest in hearing. Also, a professionally run and drama free Jackson family tour may take some of the stigma and risk out of promoting future Michael Jackson concerts and if the shows are successful even make Las Vegas resorts give the one time King of Pop a second chance. Vegas loves giving second chances. But for now Michael Jackson has a long way to go to earn that opportunity.

 

 

The stories about the crowds in town for All-Star weekend continue to be draw-dropping. And, locals don't seem ready to move on yet. Let me preface this by saying the resorts take a lot of pride in customer service. Frontline workers on the Strip are not minimum wage workers but highly compensated professionals offering a mix of obsequiousness and hard work that is meant to give every tourist the VIP experience. So, Vegas workers will put up with a lot from tourists without complaining. Casino workers rarely confront troublesome customers rather they try to soothe things over. The sad truth is that the more obnoxious tourists can often bully their way into comps and other treats meant to keep everyone happy. 

 

But the over-the-top "thug" behavior of the All-Star NBA crowd has left in its wake a boiling fury among cocktail waitresses, bartenders, security and other jaded pros of the Strip. Among the nightclubs where incidents seem to have taken place on the Strip are hot spots at Wynn, Mandalay Bay and freestanding Empire Ballroom. Off Strip, the topless bars proved a center for problems, too. The stories range from bottles being thrown at employees to guns being confiscated. An employee at Empire told me about having to hide in the back with other workers when a melee broke out shortly after reports that a gun had found its way into the club. For the entire weekend this person reported that female bartenders and cocktail servers at Empire were routinely addressed by customers with obscenities the nicest of which rhymes with witch. I have heard similar treatment was meted out by customers to servers at Pure. Even the usually mellow Peppermill seems to have been the scene of hassles.

 

Of course, the incident so far getting press attention is the shooting at the strip club Minxx. That incident combines many of the factors that workers blame for the problems elsewhere:  outside promoters, celebrities with large entourages and irresponsible behavior by everyone involved. The Review-Journal reports police have talked to NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones who may have known the shooter.

 

In all the uproar over the tourists who came here last weekend, particularly disconcerting to the servers I interviewed was the question if race played a part in their perception of the crowd. All denied it. One worker at Empire told me: "These were thugs.  It was mostly black people, yes, but this had nothing to do with race. I also got called 'slut' by a white guy with a grill. It was thug culture."

 

In all Las Vegas seems traumatized by the entire experience of All-Star weekend.

In January, 2006 I blogged about the dubious chances of the "autotainment" center, "The Drive," being built behind the Sahara by GM with hopes of somehow boosting the adjacent monorail. As I put it back then: "The floundering monorail, a struggling car manufacturer and an aging casino have combined for a Vegas adventure." The adventure let you pay to test drive GM cars in an effort to make you interested in buying one. A little too close to sales to call fun. How this benefited the monorail was more ambiguous despite the track being near the Sahara's monorail station. Still, the head of the monorail blithely predicted: "We know this is going to be the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership with General Motors." This knowledge proved as accurate as most every other statement issued in connection to the Las Vegas monorail; The Review-Journal reports today that "The Drive" closed back in November.

 

 

Las Vegas was on its best behavior for NBA All-Star Weekend. But a number of NBA fans apparently were not. From double the number of usual arrests to two shootings, this weekend brought more chaos to the tourist corridor than even a New Year's weekend. This morning I have received, as yet unconfirmed, tips about cocktail servers walking out on shifts at two major Strip resort nightclubs due to harassment from patrons.

 

 

 

 

Even covering entertainment in Las Vegas, invitations like this are rare:

On Valentine's Day I drove to Pahrump to spend some time at the Chicken Ranch brothel. While prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas, outside the borders of Clark County, Nevada is the only state in the nation with legalized brothels. In addition to its famous name (imported from Texas), The Chicken Ranch has the distinction of being the closest brothel to Las Vegas. I figured the place would be packed; Vegas is overflowing this weekend because of the NBA weekend, the MAGIC fashion convention, Chinese New Year, and, of course, a three day weekend on the horizon. In terms of story possibilities, a packed brothel on Valentine's Day, seemed like fishing in an overstocked lake.

 

This was my first time back at the Chicken Ranch since I lived there for a week to write a cover story for Las Vegas Weekly in June, 2005. It was also my first drive back to Pahrump, and I noticed the Vegas housing boom, now cooling, has had an impact on Pahrump. During my previous visit the town was still centered around people buying individual empty lots and filling them (with a strong preference for manufactured homes). Pahrump was known to be affordable. The 45 mile or so road to Vegas winds through difficult terrain and is poorly lit, too narrow, and locally known for its lethal accidents. That road is now receiving an upgrade and people in Vegas are more willing to cast an eye to Pahrump in order to buy a home. So, after pulling across the county line, the area around Pahrump that used to be empty now boasts under construction sub-developments, and as in Vegas, you see signs saying: "Starting in the low 200's." It will be interesting to see when these newcomers become voters if they are still comfortable with Nevada's tradition of legal brothels or choose to end  the practice. This has not happened in the face of the growth, albeit less explosive, to the brothels up north. In fact, the brothels near Reno have never had a higher profile thanks to owners like Dennis Hof.

 

One of the most interesting things about these times is just how easy it is to get at source documents, and just how interesting source documents can be. On Tuesday Review-Journal had a front page story on a 15 page letter written to the judge by former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone whose sentencing hearing in our local Strippergate political corruption scandal began that morning. Malone signed a plea deal last year just before he was to go to trial for being the bagman for a topless club owner's bribes to other County Commissioners. By then Malone had already been convicted and sentenced to 36 months for similar charges involving bribing politicians in San Diego. The story  in the newspaper runs through all of the history and the facts and highlights the most newsworthy elements of the letter: no complaints. But the Review-Journal on its website also offers the full 15 page letter, utterly irreplaceable by any second hand account; it may be the Year of the Pig in China but the Spirit of the Weasel is running free in Vegas.