Event-packed Vegas weekend: Party like it's still 2006!
Vegas needs tourists to come back and this weekend, for whatever reason, promises to be the most happening few days thus far in 2009. If you have the time and want some distraction, this is the weekend for a spontaneous Vegas vacation.
The biggest attractions are the debut shows for the Hard Rock's new Joint concert hall. Tonight the first show at the Joint is Vegas locals the Killers. Saturday is Avenged Sevenfold and then Sunday night Paul McCartney plays the venue, which has a maximum capacity of about 4,000.
On Saturday night, "Peepshow," the new topless production show at Planet Hollywood starring Mel B. and Kelly Monaco, holds its grand opening. I spent Friday at rehearsals for this show, and I profile one of the showgirls, a former "American Idol" contestant, in the current Las Vegas Weekly. You can read my review of the show on the Buffet on Monday.
Last but not least, this weekend seems the start of the dayclubbing pool season. Dayclubbing has evolved over the last year or two as the resorts have attempted to get the nightclub crowd to their pools. So, dayclubbing features the sort of celebrity hosts who usually can be found at nightclubs, attached to a nightclub brand or some club sounding name, and instead of bottle/table service the pools are selling private cabanas. On Saturday at 2 p.m., you can go to the pool at Hard Rock for Rehab with guest Snoop Dogg, or you can go to the pool at MGM for Wet Republic with Lauren Conrad (pictured). Then a short time later, at 3:30 p.m., you can head over to the Venetian to Tao Beach, hosted by Mandy Moore.
Finally, on Sunday afternoon, back at Planet Hollywood, there is the taping of the Miss USA Pageant. For the last couple of weeks, the contestants in their sashes have been a ubiquitous presence on the Strip promoting the event.
Do you think a weekend packed with events like these, combined with Vegas' lower room rates, is enough to bring back the tourists and stop the constant decline in visitor numbers? Much of this (dayclubbing, Paul McCartney in a relatively tiny venue, a new topless show with state-of-the-art production values) are the fulfillment of visions that date to 2006, the glory days of catering to the high-end tourist, with a special appeal to the young, rich and beautiful people of Los Angeles. Will it still do the trick in 2009? Or does Vegas need to work harder at putting together different kinds of bait to lure back the tourists?
Photo: Sarah Gerke
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Toby Keith goes Vegas
Wow, is Toby Keith going to be remembering his most recent Vegas trip.
At the ACM Awards at MGM this weekend, there was a widely reported obscenity-laced tirade against a reporter for the Tennessean who picked up and ran with a Rolling Stone article by actor Ethan Hawke alleging an argument among Keith, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson in 2003. (I bet the world was really concerned about that feud before.)
But Keith's fun in Vegas began before the ACM Awards. The Las Vegas Sun offered a first-hand account of a Jack Daniels-inflected, so-late-at-night-it's-early-morning performance at the singer's namesake bar on the Strip before the awards show at which he also chose to illustrate his dependence on a certain expletive as a primary vehicle of his verbal expression.
In addition to originals, he offered a few cover tunes, including J. J. Cale's "Cocaine." True class.
Well, these things sometimes happen on a Vegas jag. All you can do is go home and hope not too much damage follows you back there. I think Keith's fans will be OK with his behavior, and Kristofferson and Nelson fans will too. I doubt even Ethan Hawke fans will care one way or the other. Still, if the man had a little humor about himself, highlights could make for a fantastic Vegas-vacation YouTube post.
Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images
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Siegfried & Roy return to Vegas stage
Being tricked is part of the art of illusion. That is something unique about magic that does not so much apply to other arts. Is a trick ever a deception? This is the odd question floating around Siegfried & Roy's farewell performance Saturday at the Bellagio. At the end of the day, I consider this controversy not important and sadly distracting, but it merits a look at anyway because of the light it shines on what expectations we bring into a performance.On Saturday at Bellagio, if nothing else, I watched an incredibly moving piece of stagecraft. It was officially the farewell performance of Siegfried & Roy at a benefit for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. Mayor Oscar Goodman was on hand to call the night, with his usual hyperbole, "the most important night in Las Vegas history." In part, this had less to do with the performance than with the project being supported: bringing a first-rate medical center to Las Vegas (to be staffed by the Cleveland Clinic) and to be housed in a Frank Gehry-designed building.
So, here is what we in the audience saw during the roughly 10-minute performance. Two men appeared onstage covered head to toe in outfits and wearing masks. One had a pronounced limp and seemed physically frail, steadying himself on his partner occasionally. After some cabinet illusions, the performance ended with the masks coming off and Siegfried & Roy posing with a giant cat. Roy needed some help getting his mask off. It was a powerfully impressive, human and moving performance. But it was also a magic trick.
The way their show ended at Mirage offered so little hope that to see them on a Vegas stage again was an inspiring moment and had the entire audience on their feet. It was the one night I have spent in Vegas recently where no one talked about the economy.
We learned later that the cat used in the illusion was Montecore, the very animal whose savaging of Roy in front of a live audience had ended their show at Mirage so abruptly. Like many, I went home realizing our greatest novelists could not have written a more complete and fulfilling ending to Siegfried & Roy's story in Vegas.
Of course, you wake up in the morning and think, "How did they do that?" Why would they need masks for a performance where everyone knew it was them? Was that Roy the entire time with the limp or someone else playing off our expectations that Roy would be the person limping? And was that really Montecore? Norm Clarke has taken on those questions in his Review-Journal column today.
I checked with Siegfried & Roy's publicist and was given this answer from their manager to my "yes" or "no" question: Was Roy onstage as the man with the limp in the costume throughout the entire performance:
“It was Siegfried & Roy all the way.”
But consider that this was an audience needing to be motivated to give to a charity fighting brain damage of the sort that often looks like it will require a miracle to make any progress. The belief in anything being possible is an illusion, one necessary to any progress. Even the painful limp and frail demeanor showing the human effort behind even a miracle helped make Siegfried & Roy's goodbye performance the perfect entertainment foil for this night. And fighting the odds from being near dead on a hospital table less than six years ago to being able to participate in this performance was a powerful message about possibility that only Siegfried & Roy could deliver. So, when you are asking when the illusion ended and what the reality of the situation, you have already done what magicians want you to do: have you leaving the theater wondering, how did they do that? (Courtesy photo)
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Strippers and Hustlers hotter than Sean Hannity
Aren't strippers known for being naked? Anyway, women are encouraged to dress like strippers and men like hustlers at the, duh, Strippers and Hustlers Ball taking place at the Orleans Arena over Labor Day weekend. This would be the same Orleans Arena that earlier this year hosted Fox News and radio conservative Sean Hannity's event. So I called over to the Orleans Arena to see what was more popular: Hannity or strippers and hustlers? Who do you think won? Come on, this is Vegas!Hannity's event pulled in 3,200 people. Organizers of the Strippers and Hustlers Ball expect 30,000 people to come to Vegas for the two-night event, and that should easily fill to capacity (7,600 people) for two nights the Orleans Arena for the Strippers and Hustlers Ball.
And to think Hannity brought to Vegas Oliver North and Lee Greenwood, yet still more will turn out to see a room full of people dressed like strippers and hustlers with "celebrities" like Heather Chadwelll (pictured) from VH1's "Rock of Love" (yes, I had to look up where her 15 minutes was filed).
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Bill Clinton's Vegas birthday dinner
President Bill Clinton turns 62 today. And last night he was in Vegas celebrating. Yeah, there is a clean energy summit going on at UNLV that the former president addressed. But even the big name participants can't resist the water wasting, electricity burning, carbon Bigfoot known as the Las Vegas Strip.
Last night, I am told, gathered for dinner at Craftsteak inside the MGM Grand were Sen. Harry Reid, T. Boone Pickens, Cher and Bill Clinton. I wonder who picked up the check?
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Tiger Jam with Van Halen hits Mandalay Bay
This year Van Halen headlines the annual charity concert Tiger Jam on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay. Tickets are still available to see the rock legends who last did two packed shows in Vegas over New Year's weekend.
As is usually the case at Tiger Jam, Irving Azoff is the man at the center making the show happen.
If for no other reason than his decades of dedication to bringing Warren Zevon's music to the world, Irving Azoff would be on my short list of heroes.
Also, giving him a serious place on the honor role was Azoff's involvement in returning Steely Dan to the road and studio, culminating in their Grammy-winning masterpiece: "Two Against Nature." As an agent, label executive and manager, Azoff was a player in the music industry when there still was a music industry and he was running with the pack that included David Geffen and Mo Ostin.
And even as the music industry has disintegrated, Azoff has continued to keep his artists working and successful and giving back to the community. One example of this is Tiger Jam. This annual charity event hosted by Tiger Woods for his foundation and other causes hits Vegas every year with a big concert. This year Azoff landed Van Halen.
I was really so pleased at a chance to talk to Azoff, I discarded my elitist impulses and never asked him if he really liked REO Speedwagon or if that was just a money thing.
Anyway, the other reason I wanted to speak to Azoff is that in the past I have had a series of dull to uncomfortable interviews with Tiger Woods about Tiger Jam that proved that despite lending his name to a concert, the brilliant golfer is not particularly fluent with popular music. Woods told me his favorite song is "Eye of the Tiger," by Survivor. He likes the title, and he told me he likes the song because it is played a lot at his golf camp.
Azoff's history with Tiger Jam is much more focused on the music.
Richard Abowitz: How did you get involved in Tiger Jam?
Irving Azoff: Tiger Woods was good friends with Glenn Frey of the Eagles. And Glenn came to me and asked me to help Tiger. We did the first one, and Tiger and I became friends. Now, there is a group of us in the music industry who do what we can to help him with his event.
Richard Abowitz: I remember at one Tiger Jam a few years ago, Christina Aguilera performed. But there were a lot of rumors that she had just split with her manager before the show and hired you, and there was a lot of backstage stuff. Can you fill us in on what happened?
Irving Azoff: That bill had her, Seal and LeAnn Rimes. I met her just before that. I went to Denver the night before and met up with her. We flew together to Las Vegas and we had our first meal together at In 'N Out Burger and then we went to the Mandalay. It was a very traumatic time in her life. Her parents were there. The show was an odd combination and there was some LeAnn Rimes drama about who was going on first and who was using pyro and other crap. But it was fun. And I think that was the year a very drunk Charles Barkley challenged me to a game of golf. Tiger was going to place a large wager that I would beat Charles provided we went and played at once on that golf course down the Strip that was lighted. It was a very, very large wager, and luckily for Charles who was so drunk he was cross-eyed he chickened out at the last minute. Lucky for him, because we would have taken a lot of money.
Abowitz: Is there any back story you can tell us about Christina Aguilera's appearance in "Shine a Light" (the Rolling Stones film directed by Martin Scorsese)?
Azoff: A magical moment. You need to see it on the big screen. They filmed it on two days, but did not really rehearse it. The show was very spontaneous. The first day was good. But everything about it worked the second day. The way she interacted with Mick and the way she nailed the song. She may be the greatest female singer alive. It was a great event.
Abowitz: What is your favorite thing about Tiger Jam?
Azoff: Not to get serious, but it is all the great things he does with the money. A lot of it goes to a learning center that is a beautiful facility. The work that is done with this money is great. This event became fun for Tiger and now he is inspired to keep it going. But his father Earl was the guy who got it started.
Abowitz: Do you know how Tiger Jam became a Vegas institution?
Azoff: They took it there once and it never left. I think the corporate guys love to party in Vegas and Tiger and his buddies love Vegas. It becomes a rest point for everyone but especially the corporate guys who have long supported us. The event is wonderful at Mandalay Bay.
Abowitz: Do you have a favorite musical moment from past Tiger Jams?
Azoff: Musical moments usually involve interesting collaborations. And there haven't been a lot of those. But I don't really have favorite musical moments; I am too old. I just love to hang out with all those guys.
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Vegas celebrates 'Love in the Time of Cholera'
It is amazing the importance of region to celebrity. I usually notice this when the Quebec press comes en masse to Vegas for anything involving Celine Dion or Cirque. And the appearance of singer Shakira last night for a charity event connected to the premier of "Love in the Time of Cholera" also attracted a large international press group that usually doesn't make it to Vegas.
But even packed on to the red carpet at the Palms, I was determined to have real talk about one of my favorite books with the people who had spent so much time thinking about Marquez and working on bringing "Love in the Time of Cholera" to the screen.
rest of us, and that is why the novel is so good," Bratt said. "But the story in it he constructed is actually pretty familiar to anyone who goes to movies: It is a love triangle. It also has the familiar boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl. But in between the last two phases there is a 50-year span. I think Marquez is really masterful at naming and describing all the variations of love: romantic, patriarchal, maternal, familial. It is all in the book, and I think they all share similar things. Love can drive you to madness and create a sickness that seems to have no recovery, but it is a sickness you really can't live without."
(photos by Sarah Gerke)
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Vegas premiere 'Love in the Time of Cholera'
But tonight, "Love in the Time of Cholera" has its exclusive premiere in Vegas. Full disclosure: The company that helped finance the movie, it turns out, as noted in The Las Vegas Sun today, is owned by the family that owns Las Vegas Weekly, where I am on staff. Still, short of giving me a huge raise, I can't think of a way I'd rather see money spent.
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Literature in Vegas?
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"Jerry Springer the Opera" Gets Vegas Premiere
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