The Movable Buffet

Dispatches from Las Vegas
by Richard Abowitz

Category: March 2007

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Vegas Rocks(but often in private)

March 31, 2007 | 1:34 pm

As someone, who in my younger days was proud to have the dubious profession of music critic, the ever increasing diversity of music in Vegas is one of our town's unheralded new century triumphs. Unheralded in part, I think, because you would have to be a music critic to care. Thursday night, for example, I saw the British punk legends The Exploited at the new University Theatre near UNLV, followed by a trip to Revolution, the Beatles/Cirque inspired lounge at Mirage and, the next morning, I had a phone interview with blues rocker George Thorogood who is appearing with his Delaware Destroyers at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on April 13. (FYI: Thorogood does not like to be asked how much he drinks and, I will have that interview posted early next week.) This range of music also points to the long term changes in Vegas caused by both the population growth and ever increasing number of hotel rooms filled with tourists wanting to be entertained from so many different generations and cultures.

Of course, I doubt there were any tourist who ventured from the Strip to check out the Exploited. But hint to those of you who like sweaty punk rock: openers, So Unloved, mix flawlessly Babes In Toyland with Kittie while managing to sound fresh. The Exploited are still playing meat and potatoes punk, and there is a new generation of teens with mohawks wanting to thrash or mosh or whatever the thing is called now.

Revolution at Mirage was having British music night, obviously. But I didn't hear any Amy Winehouse. The sounds ranged from vintage Rolling Stones to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by 80s Yes. And, the customers reflected the young and beautiful who enjoy the ultra lounge experience catered by VIP hosts to a lot of boomers happy to be someplace so "now" in Vegas where they can still play name that tune with their friends.

Finally, yesterday, I notice there is a mysterious advertisement in Las Vegas Weekly (where I am on staff). On page 26 is an advertisement for Elvis Costello in Las Vegas on April 17. This concert has not been listed locally, and this is like no advertisement I have seen before. The information in the advertisement opens with the cryptic headline "And those who preserve Its Soul 'the CRAFT." But nothing in the advertisement explains what that means. Other than that, the information offered is very specific. "Elvis Costello The Pearl at the Palms Las Vegas April 17th --10:30." But it is what is missing that is so surprising: there is no information on how to buy tickets.

In fact, as I began to look into what is going on with the Elvis Costello show, I discovered that there are not tickets available for the show. This turns out to be a private event. Here are the details I have been able to gather thus far. The Craft is an Inside the Actors Studio type affair focused on songwriting. Miller and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are partnering to create this series (which one assumes is being taped for television). Costello is the debut artist. But the audience will be invited guests only, as far as I can tell. Anyway, I have one question: why buy an advertisement for this weeks away in a local weekly? Okay, I have two questions, the other being, how can I get into see it, if tickets aren't available? I've written much about Costello and am a music geek fan. Here is the larger point: sometimes just because something happens in this newly, richly diverse musical environment of Las Vegas the reality remains that we are a town for rent and what happens in Vegas often doesn't happen for locals.

Beacher VS. PETA: Monkey Business Continues....

March 29, 2007 | 12:49 pm

Here is a Q&A I just had with Hard Rock headliner Jeff Beacher on PETA's complaint about the monkey he uses in his Madhouse show. Far from backing down, Beacher here announces that he is adding more animals to the Madhouse and denies an old rumor by pointing out Paris has her own monkey.

Richard Abowitz: Are you taking the monkey out of the show?

Jeff Beacher: Absolutely not.

Question: The expert from PETA told me that as the monkey gets older it could turn temperamental and be dangerous to people...

Answer: The monkey is in no way dangerous to anybody. It's licensed. It's trained. It loves everybody and we love it.

Q; Does the monkey have a name?

A: We call it Fred.

Q: PETA says that the raucous Madhouse environment is bad for monkeys; and that monkeys can't give consent to be in that casino environment.

A: The monkey is a trained performance monkey. It doesn't live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the Madhouse. It is there for an hour, once a month. I hardly think that harms the monkey in anyway, and neither does the trained, licensed, permit holding professional who takes care of the monkey and treats the monkey as a son.

Q: Do you envision now adding other animals to the Madhouse?

A: Yes, we are in the process of licensing and getting permits for several different animals.

Q: What kind?

A: Goats, sheep, all kinds.

Q: Are you being serious?

A: Yes. And, we are looking to partnering with a local farm to keep all the animals. I love animals. They are a lot of fun. And, the Madhouse fans love to have animals around. They like to pet animals. That's part of the environment we are creating. It's an adult circus.

Q: I just remembered. Don't you already have a goat that is on MYSpace?

A: Yeah, Beachy.

Q: Has the goat been to the Madhouse?

A: Yes.

Q: Now, didn't Paris Hilton buy, borrow or get loaned the monkey one night at the Madhouse? And, maybe there was a trip to a nightclub in the Hard Rock?

A: No, some gossip trade just wrote that.

Q: Really?

A: No. Paris has her own monkeys.

Q: What?

A: She has her own monkeys, yeah.

Q: Paris Hilton has a monkey?

A: Yeah, it is called a capuchin.

Q: Paris has a capuchin monkey. I should have known. Did her getting a monkey have anything to do with the Madhouse monkey?

A: No. We got our monkey after Paris got hers.

Q: Okay. Now, are you really afraid that PETA is going to paint you?

A: Of course, I am afraid. They unleash their Stormtroopers and attack people.

Q: Weren't you going to submerge yourself in mustard and ketchup? How can you be afraid of paint?

A: I am not afraid of the paint. But I am afraid they are going to attack me.

Q: But you aren't afraid. I mean, if they paint you, won't you just send out a press release?

A: I am not saying I won't publicize the event.
(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

Hard Rock's Beacher Vs. PETA

March 29, 2007 | 9:23 am

Jeff Beacher is such a genius for publicity and self-promotion. Has anyone even noticed the headliner at the Hard Rock has not performed a show at the venue all year? In fact, his first Madhouse of 2007 isn't even on the schedule until May 26. Yet, that has hardly kept Beacher's name out of the press. Earlier this year, Beacher got himself a national publicity bonanza when he announced, after Donald Trump kicked her to the curb, that dethroned Miss Nevada, Katie Rees, would become the new host for the Madhouse. Little did Beacher know that his next batch of clippings would come as a side benefit from the Katie Rees story.

"When the Katie Rees stories appeared our members from all over the country sent in complaints," says Jackie Vergerio of PETA. (Karma points my way for the oh so many Katie Rees jokes I am not making right now.) According to Vergerio: "The stories mentioned that he (Beacher) uses a monkey in the show and you go on the Web site and you see what that show is like and it is a horrible environment for a primate. It is no environment for any animal to be subjected to it." Interestingly, though perhaps not fit for a monkey, the raucous circus and bachelor party atmosphere of Beacher's Madhouse is an environment that human animals will wait in line hours and hours for a chance to be admitted. Anyway, according to Vergerio, PETA sent a letter to the entertainment director of the Hard Rock to complain about the monkey being used in the show. Of course, Beacher's response was to leap at the chance for attention provided by PETA's complaint.

And, so it is no surprise, that I first became aware of the situation this morning after reading a press release from Beacher lashing out at PETA titled: "Jeff Beacher not Monkeying around with PETA." My favorite quote in the press release: "Beacher...fears that the people who represent PETA believe in bully tactics and is scared that they will dump paint on him." Is this the same Beacher who a few months ago, for another publicity stunt, was planning to cover himself in dough and then use a crane to lower himself into a vat of ketchup and mustard for 8 minutes to make himself the world's largest pig-in-a-blanket?

(photo of Beacher's monkey taken 11/12/05 by Sarah Gerke)

McCain's straight talk twists on NCAA betting

March 28, 2007 | 8:35 am

John McCain is famous in Las Vegas for leading a five year charge to ban betting on college sports like basketball in Nevada casinos. So, on March 14, I wrote on the Buffet about the apparent hypocrisy of Sen. McCain offering a chance on his web site for supporters to pick the winner of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and, of course, the chance for supporters to compete against the Senator's own picks: the winners getting lots of McCain swag. The next day, March 15, the Review-Journal turned my point into a front page section story. Today, the Review-Journal finally has the Senator's hair splitting explanation of the difference: "I think there is a great deal of difference between setting up a a Web site just like there's office pools all over America that have no benefit to the person (organizing the game)." So, he only objects now to the casino getting a cut? Back in the day, McCain, argued that betting money on amateur games would result in the corruption of college sports, and he has repeatedly predicted a gambling scandal in this area. So, I am confused: what does that objection have to do with Nevada casinos organizing the taking of the bets for profit? It isn't the resorts that are going to bribe any players or cheat any customers. They are heavily regulated. Couldn't corruption just as easily come from illegal betting? As to his earlier legislation McCain now says of it: "Legislation that I proposed said that everything is legal as long as someone doesn't gain from it." Well, how much would you pay for a McCain Fleece or a McCain hat? And, more importantly, is McCain clueless that office pools across the country tend to be all about betting money and paying a winner quite well (not to mention that the office pool organizer, say, Joe from distribution, might decide to quietly keep a little commission for his efforts)? Are office pools even legal in most states? According to the Review-Journal, following Senator Straight Talk's twisted explanation of his NCAA picking game with prizes on the Web site he "declined to take further questions on the subject." So, it seems from the information given thus far, that the Senator is saying we should place our NCAA betting money in office pools and/or "games" on Web sites, instead of betting in a legal and regulated casino's sports book. This will avoid corruption?

Headliner Snubs Me

March 27, 2007 | 12:02 pm

Speaking of sensitive: it seems that one long time headliner on the Strip will no longer deal with me. And, I hardly know the person. I wish I could name the name here, I really do! I am working on that. I want this feud public. But I needed an explanation for why an interview request for The Los Angeles Times (this was for the Buffet print column) was being rejected by a Strip headliner. I mean, except for Prince, almost every headliner in Vegas lives for press interviews; there are tickets to sell. But the publicist I was communicating with offered a response to my need for an explanation with a demand of anonymity for the client. Fair enough. It turns out the problem wasn't with The Los Angeles Times, the problem was me. This from the publicist's e-mail (with the Strip headliner's name replaced by X) was the reason my interview request was rejected:

"Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to make this happen. X would prefer not to do any interviews with you, as X feels like you have been unsupportive."

Believe it or not, this is a first for me. I mean, I have been turned down for a lot of interviews before, of course. But never has anyone refused access for an interview on account of something I wrote about him or her. Or, in this case, didn't write. The publicist offered a link to an item I wrote last year that the headliner provided illustrating my supposed bias. The amazing thing is that the item was on another topic altogether. So, I got out my microscope to locate the passing mention of this headliner's name in the item. The reference wasn't even particularly negative. Actually, I enjoyed this headliner's show when I first saw it. Ah, but the artistic temperament.

Win or Lose, Always Sue

March 27, 2007 | 8:56 am

Both of my parents are lawyers (and my sister and a scattering of aunts, uncles and cousins), and so I get the job requires you to offer arguments that can defy common sense. Still, there comes a point when you have to tell your client that the law is not on his side, especially if it is a big law like the First Amendment. Of course, if your client is the company owned by the richest man in Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson...well, if it be his will, then the billable hours continue no matter the outcome.

Almost a year ago the Las Vegas Sun (owned by the parent company of Las Vegas Weekly, where I am on staff) published a column criticizing Adelson's Venetian saying it had a "sorry Nevada regulatory record." According to today's Sun: "That was a reference to Venetian gaming violations for which the company was fined $1 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 2004." Sounds "sorry" to me. But Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp sued. Interestingly, the worry for the Sands was that this story would damage the Sands' attempt to compete against other local resort companies trying to score a gaming licence in Singapore that the Sands actually won.

Looking at the facts, Judge Michelle Leavitt rejected the lawsuit in November. In her most recent decision in the case she even noted that far from defamatory the Sun's language was "very kind" and "minor" when compared to the actual words of Nevada's Gaming Control Commission Chairman who levied the fine against Sands in 2004. End of story? Not when billionaires are involved! Instead of calling it quits, the Sands filed an amended complaint arguing with the help of Los Angeles lawyer Martin Singer that the Sun was guilty of "defamation by omission" by not looking into every other resort's regulatory history in the same story. Judge Leavitt seemed incredulous, asking Singer, the Sand's lawyer, "If they want to write something bad about me and I don't like it and I hear every other judge does it, I get to sue them?"

Singer: "I believe it does."

Judge Leavitt: "I think that's the most absurd argument I've ever heard."

The judge dismissed the complaint. So, now it is over? No, of course, not. Singer tells the Sun he must confer with his client before deciding whether to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court. I wonder how many billable hours that appeal would add? Anyone, think any other court in the United States will have any other opinion about a story covered by the First Amendment with no known factual errors in it?

Interview With Criss Angel

March 26, 2007 | 2:08 pm

Here is my one-on-one interview with Criss Angel after Thursday's press conference. Sorry, to be slow getting it up for you. Once again I note, it will be interesting how Angel folds himself into the corporate and Cirque circles he must now operate. Still, with a Summer 2008 opening plan for the show, they are probably far enough along in the planning to know that all the partners will be able to work well enough together to pull this off. But it is rather revealing that Angel isn't even clear on the title of his fellow Vegas Cirque show Zumanity referring to the New York New York production as Zumanicus. Anyway, I will keep you up to date as we get closer to the opening of Angel's show.

Criss Angel: Thanks for what you wrote about me.

Richard Abowitz: That seems like a good place to start. What I wrote was that a few years ago there were a lot of people kicking around Vegas trying to merge metal and magic. How is it that you wound up the one hitting pay dirt and now signing this deal with Cirque?

Answer: Without tapping myself on the back I kind of define that, though I don't perceive myself to be metal; I just perceive myself to be me...

Question: Well, you came out of a band.

Answer: And, I write the music for the show.

Q: Will you be writing the music for this (Cirque) show?

A: I will be an integral part of that process. I have some material that we are working on right now. Right now the creative process is open and we are exploring what makes the most sense for all the moments on stage. So, at this point, I don't know what will end up being on stage. But I know I have almost 200 pieces of music and I have new pieces of music I am working on right now and, at the end of the day, we have got to make that audio and visual fusion.

A Vegas Story: Starring Davia Ardell

March 24, 2007 | 8:09 pm

Here is a Vegas story. I try walking to the Whole Foods near my new home. While looking at yogurt, I discover I am standing next to adult film star Davia Ardell. We know each other only slightly through a mutual friend. But it turns out she recently bought a house in this neighborhood, too. Davia, being neighborly, offers to give me a ride home since I wind up buying more groceries than I can easily carry. On the way, she tells me how she is just back from a feature dancing gig in Philadelphia and getting ready to do another one in Hawaii. Other than that, she says, she just finished doing the taping of a reality show a few weeks ago. I noted how she listed that among her work activities, and I love asking about the "reality" of reality shows that are taped in Vegas. And, this was typical. For the taping of this reality show, Davia was paid by the producers to sculpt reality by pretending to find an aging big name rock star really sexy and to fawn on him while the cameras documented the moment.

I should mention that, while we are in the same neighborhood, Davia Ardell's new house is worth more than twice mine. And, not just because of the money from her career. Ardell grew up in Vegas and being a local, she was smart enough to invest in Vegas real estate early and she did very well.

Pressed Together: Criss Angel and Cirque and Luxor

March 23, 2007 | 10:48 am

The open secret of the marriage of illusionist Criss Angel and Cirque for a show at the Luxor is no longer any secret after yesterday's press conference. These sort of affairs tend to be very boring with a bunch of executives getting on stage talking about how great, how phenomenal and creative and brilliant everyone involved in the project is followed by singling out all of the other executives for individual shout outs and praise, followed by the next executive doing the same thing. Since this project involved both MGM and Cirque, cross-pollinated back scratching of one another's executives by the two companies was also de rigueur. One extra familiar moment was the speech of Felix Rappaport, president and COO of the Luxor. His talk about how crucial this moment and show was to the future of the Luxor was quite similar to a another speech at a similar press conference he gave on the same stage not so long ago talking about what turned out to be the short lived Hairspray.

Another interesting moment in the press conference came from the question not asked: none of the reporters present offered the standard question of if the Strip can sustain another Cirque show? This one makes 6. Maybe the answer has become obvious; yes, Cirque can always do another show, as long as there is a fresh gimmick like the Beatles or a star magician like Angel. In fact, Crique has never had one of its shows built around a single star before. They are adjusting. Did I want to interview any Cirque creative folks, one publicist for the troupe sort of forlornly asked me as I waited with others in the press for my turn to have a one-on-one interview with Angel. No, I wanted to talk to the star like everyone else.

Actually, Angel seems a little rough around the edges for his new role, too. Angel gave an Academy Award sort of meandering speech (that had no swelling music followed by the microphone cutting out to stop him from continuing). I didn't mind his talk so much. But most others felt differently. I was sitting next to Norm of the Review-Journal who writes this morning: "In a too-long speech Angel elevated the discomfort level by dropping an F-bomb during an I-told-you-so rant against critics and doubters." Yeah, but that was my favorite moment getting to see the executives all looking so uncomfortable while simultaneously forcing themselves to offer fake giggles.

All of this points to how interesting it will be to see how the corporate culture of MGM/Mirage, the egalitarian creativity of Cirque, and self-described control freak Criss Angel will mesh. And, so that is a topic I asked him about a few times when I got my time to interview him. By the way, I will have that interview with Angel posted for you on the Buffet a little latter. I also ask him about his most annoying illusion: how did he make the "h" disappear?

(Photo by Sarah Gerke: L-R Felix Rappaport, Criss Angel, Daniel Lamarre, Gilles Ste-Croix)

Jenna Jameson Thinning Away?

March 21, 2007 | 5:26 pm

It was only a few months ago that you could not hit the Strip it seemed without bumping into local girl Jenna Jameson making the rounds with her boyfriend Tito Ortiz. Anyway, in recent weeks, if she has been in Vegas, Jameson has kept a lower profile. So, I was stunned when I saw this recent picture of the legendary adult film star on TMZ.Com. Jenna Jameson suddenly looks less like a sex star and more like a piece of conceptual art on display at the Whitney Biennial titled: Fake Boobs Attached to Toothpick. This already

disturbingly thin (yet less than three month old) photo of her in Vegas for AVN earlier this year is of a far heavier, I think, Jenna than her current look.

(photo January 13, 2007 by Sarah Gerke)

Dispatches from Las Vegas by Richard Abowitz

Dispatches from Las Vegas
by Richard Abowitz