What Happens in Vegas: Ford Pickup Truck Smashes Through Stratosphere!

No, it didn't rocket into space, it crashed into the lobby of The Stratosphere Hotel & Casino, and thankfully not into the tower itself. Still, it had to be exciting. And though it is good news that nobody was injured, it may not say much about the crowd coming in and out of the place.

[Excerpt]

Truck barrels through Stratosphere front entrance
 

Ford tough! Image from source, Las Vegas Sun

In what officials believe is the first such incident at the hotel, a vehicle crashed through the glass doors at the front entrance of the Stratosphere tonight at 8. Witnesses said the vehicle, a silver Ford F-150 pickup, entered the valet facing Las Vegas Boulevard, veered hard to the right and through the entrance, causing a loud crash and taking out two sets of the glass doors (four total) before braking on the marble floor inside the casino. There were no injuries reported. . .

Read more at: Las Vegas Sun

What Happens in Vegas White Castle Restaurant to Open on the Strip

Hat tip to my rival/friend Dan, for this wonderful news! I don't get down to the strip very often, but I may have to make an exception now and then for authentic White Castle hamburgers! I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where the only real "sliders" are an institution. My regular order is five cheeseburgers (technically a little too much, but four is not enough), and onion chips with ketchup. They're freaking awesome.

But they're also a challenge, and a potential hazard. Let me explain. A White Castle meal can be sort of like fast food roulette. Don't ask me why, but about one time out of ten, they cause a bit of gastrointestinal distress. For this, they earned the name, "Belly Bombers." Come to think of it, that might be where "sliders" comes from too. Doesn't matter, they're worth the risk, and whether you call them Whitey-One-Bites, greasers, WCs or any of the above,  I absolutely love them. And I'm hoping

that the new Las Vegas location is open 24 hours like all of their other stores, just for that authentic experience.

So, now that we've got the Porcelain Palace, can we finally get some good pizza? I nominate Donato's. And while were at it, how about Skyline Chili?

[Excerpt]

White Castle may finally come to Vegas

The immensely popular White Castle burgers may be finally finding a permanent home in Las Vegas. The burger chain will reportedly open it’s first Las Vegas restaurant at the Best Western Plus Casino Royale, if documents obtained by Eater are any indication. . .

Read more at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

What Happens in Vegas: Bally's Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, 3 Injured

We hear about shootings seemingly every other week or so, but usually they aren't in your home town. Or within just a few miles of your office. But here we are, a shooting at Bally's Hotel & Casino. Not good for tourism, hopefully it will be regarded as a fluke. Oddly enough, there was a shooting death just outside Bally's not so long ago, with the result ending in a fiery, deadly taxi crash. Odder still, there was a school shooting in Sparks, Nevada the same day. Clearly, we don't have enough guns. Or something.

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1 Dead, 3 Injured in Las Vegas Strip Nightclub Shooting
 

8 News NOW Metro Police say a patron is dead and three others injured following an early morning shooting at a nightclub in Bally's Hotel and Casino.

The gunman has been identified as 41-year-old Benjamin Frazier. . .

Read more at: 8NewsNow

What Happens in Vegas: Sign Worker Falls 130 Feet from MGM Sign

Ouch! As a sign maker (and occasional installer), one who has done a lot of work over the years with the company in question, this one hits a little close to home. And it makes my recent (non-work related) fall of one foot look rather trivial. I'm glad this guy survived, and I hope he fully recovers. But I'd love to see video of that fall.

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Worker in Serious Condition after 130-Foot Fall from Marquee
8 News NOW


A worker is recovering after falling more than 100 feet while working on the MGM Grand marquee Wednesday morning. . . .

Read more at: 8NewsNow

What Happens in Vegas: Cirque du Soleil Performer Dies in Fall at KA

Ugh. Immediate reaction to the news was just an "oof" moment to me. It's something that is at once sad, and completely understandable. Circus performers perform death-defying acts for a living, and sometimes there is a mistake. It doesn't make it less sad, this reality. Nor does it help with the trauma felt by the performer's friends, the people in the crowd who witnessed it, or anyone involved with the show (or family of shows). But it is important to put this into context. As with air shows, and race cars, and many other thrill-providing entertainment exhibitions, occasionally--and thankfully rarely--someone is going to get hurt or die.

I've never seen KA, though I have watched other Cirque du Soleil shows, such as Mystère, Zarkana and Michael Jackson Immortal. All of them contained amazing, thrilling--and clearly death-defying--stunts. Part of the amazement is in the fact that it looks so dangerous. Now we know, if we didn't already, that the threat is very real.

Image from source, Las Vegas Sun

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Cirque du Soleil artist killed in fall from stage during ‘Ka’ at MGM Grand

Sarah Guyard-Guillot, an artist in "Ka" at MGM Grand and a mother of two children ages 8 and 5, was killed Saturday night after a fall from the show's stage at MGM Grand. The Clark County Coroner's Office said this afternoon that Guyard-Guillot, 31, was pronounced dead at 11:43 p.m. Saturday at University Medical Center.

Read more: LasVegasSun

What Happens in Vegas: A Grumble from a Long-Time Resident

One weird thing about living in Las Vegas is that though our city is decidedly blue (as is the state in Presidential elections of late), political talk on the radio is exclusively from the red. [And just a side-note, isn't it funny how conservatives have come to be called "red," when the "reds" used to be their outright enemy? Anyway. . .] Liberal talk radio is a rare animal I'll grant you, a genre that includes only a handful of programs, but we don't get any of them in Las Vegas. I'm always amused that so often "the media" is depicted as a liberal entity, where underdog conservatives have to fight to have their voices heard.

So, if I want to listen to news commentary in the car, I have to resort to some Bluetooth/podcast setup, or I have to tune in to conservotalk on the terrestrial radio. And since I'm only in the car for 15-20 minute stretches, I can manage to do that without going completely nuts. The most popular station in this format is KXNT (with both an AM and FM version), and they run Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity as you'd expect. But in drive-time, they scuttled the unlistenable Mark Levin to tape delay at night, in favor of a series of local hosts. There was a young team of "Radio Star" winners who were later dumped, a long-timer who got unceremoniously fired, and the current guy, a dolt named Kevin Wall.

Click image to embiggen.

Wall is clearly a pro at talking on the radio, I'll give him that. He can vamp to fill time. He can bail out of a phone call, or ill-thought-out train of thought. And if you're not paying attention to the actual sequence of words coming out of his mouth, he sounds just fine. But in my listening experience, I've yet to discover his area of expertise. His depth of knowledge on any particular subject is. . .well. . .shallow. When he interviews a guest on the phone, things go well as long as the guest is basically let go to talk about their subject. Things go somewhat awry when he starts peppering them with questions, veering into tangents that invariably lead to blind alleys. But like I said, he's good at steering back on course, when he realizes he's hit a pot hole.

On Thursday, the interview subject was most friendly, the honorable former mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman. On this occasion, I found myself annoyed several times in the course of a couple of sentences. First up, Goodman and his wife Carolyn (the current mayor) are loathe to disabuse anyone of the false notion that the city of Las Vegas is the entire valley, including the strip. It's not. The Goodmans' jurisdiction ends north of the Las Vegas Strip, including the Stratosphere and downtown, but not the megaresorts. Kevin Wall on the other hand, seemingly isn't even aware of this fact. When talking to Goodman (or other city officials), he regularly tosses in references to areas clearly outside the city, cluelessly. 

Wall, of course, eventually turns everything back around to something negative about President Obama, and I guess that's a talent too. So, he asked Goodman about his "run-ins" with the President. And just as Goodman rarely admits he wasn't the mayor of the MGM Grand, he continues to perpetuate the myth that Obama told people not to come to Las Vegas. I've covered this subject before, because with Goodman, it is well-traveled. As you can see if you go to that link, what Obama actually said was both conservative and true. Both statements Obama made were about fiscal responsibility! Not taking a junket on the taxpayer's dime, and not blowing money you don't have. Yes, "Vegas" was in both quotes, but the context wasn't just glossed over, it was ignored.

These things were annoying enough for me to remember them hours later, and decide to write this post. But I really wasn't surprised by them. Kevin Wall is a guy hired to perform the role of "conservative talk radio host," and does it ably if not smartly. Smarts are obviously not a job requirement. Oscar Goodman is a fast-talking mob lawyer turned politician; a self-promoter who is selling a book about those things. He's always played loosey-goosey with facts, preferring truthiness instead.

What Happens in Vegas: Las Vegas Icon Kenny Kerr Dead at 60?

I included a question mark, because though I just heard this story on News 3 here on KSNV in Las Vegas, I can't find the story anywhere. Not even on their own website. Google and Bing have nothing as of this writing.

Image from Toledo Blade

Kenny Kerr was one of the two most famous female impersonators in Las Vegas, the other being Frank Marino. The two had a tempestuous relationship, and Marino always seemed to have the better reputation, and the more consistently on-track career. Kerr's Boylesque ran for years, at more than one property before fracturing into varying shows in varying places. I met Kerr once, complimented him (I had seen Boylesque twice at The Sahara), and found him to be curt and a bit rude. Others who I've met have relayed similar information, but he was entertaining, and very funny in his show.

So, no details, and no second source, but at least one Las Vegas television station has declared Kerr dead at 60. Which is too young, and surely older than Kerr admitted to! RIP, Kenny.

UPDATE: I guess it helps to type in "Kenny Kerr Dead" into Bing. It revealed a Las Vegas Review-Journal story, so I guess it's legit. It doesn't list a cause of death, but it does play coy with whether or not Kerr was gay. Please.

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

UPDATE THE SECOND: Wow, I unintentionally set off a firestorm in the comments section, regarding this post, and my apparent tastelessness in writing it.  I have a tendency toward irreverence on this, my personal blog. And I've never much gone in for "only say the nicest things about the recently deceased," at least not on the blog. But it bears keeping in mind that I'm not just writing this blog for myself, or my small group of usual readers. Often times, people connected to the stories may find me in a Google search, and not take kindly to my phrasing. Apologies if I was too rough in my assessment of Mr. Kerr. I'm sure that especially to his friends and family, he was a perfectly wonderful guy.  I obviously wouldn't have gone to his show twice if I didn't enjoy him as a performer. 

What Happens in Vegas: Megaresort to Rise from Echelon Place Ashes

In the waning days of the Bush Era--and just before the economic downturn--Las Vegas was a boom town. "Stratosphere" wasn't just the tower on the strip, it was where everything was headed, and the developers and casinos, everybody just thought it would last forever.* To be fair, Vegas had been on the upward trajectory for a dozen years or more, so it did feel like we'd just keep growing and growing.

Image from Wikipedia

But what do you do, when you've already got a dozen themed resorts, complete with fake cities (New York, Paris, Monte Carlo), a castle, a pyramid and more? Well, you move from resorts to mega-resorts. City centers, with multiple hotel properties on one site, with shopping and galleries and attractions, all within the boundaries of the new property. Many were planned, including Viva! which was never made, City Cener which was, and Echelon Place which. . .landed somewhere in-between.

Another thing we did in those days was implode old properties. We didn't just implode buildings, we erased swaths of Vegas history along with a great deal of brand equity. The Dunes and The Sands, long famed names (and signs!) were destroyed to make way for Bellagio and The Venetian. Those properties worked, and at least The Sands lives on as a brand as a convention center here in Las Vegas, and in properties in other parts of the world. But The Dunes is gone, and so is Stardust, one of the most iconic old hotels, with its (formerly) lightning bolt logo. Stardust was imploded to make way for Echelon Place, a grand city center megaresort, in the shadow of the Stratosphere.

The proposed new Asian-themed Resort World Las Vegas, from VegasInc

I remember when the project was announced. Originally, I don't think there was a "Place" at the end of the project's name, but it didn't matter. What did it mean? And it was dotted with other names that didn't mean much to most people, like Delano and Mondrian. Where older properties had a clear theme, this one seemed rather a conglomeration of stuff, and it didn't seem coherent. But we'll never know if it would have ultimately made sense or not, because in 2008 it just stopped. It just sits there--unfinished--a blight. Well, no more. After more than six years, and countless millions of dollars lost (six plus years of prime real estate earning zero dollars, just for a start), the property has been purchased, and will be developed at last.

And it looks like one of Sheldon Adelson's Malaysian rivals will be setting up right across the street.

[Excerpt]

Asian-themed megaresort planned for old Stardust site
An Asian gaming powerhouse is planning a $2 billion Asian-themed mega-resort on the Las Vegas Strip where the old Stardust was imploded and the stalled Echelon was planned. Genting Group plans to build the 3,500-room Chinese-themed resort with a 175,000-square-foot casino. The company calls it the “first phase” of a property to be named Resorts World Las Vegas. . .

Read more at: VegasInc



* Speaking of the economic downturn, and bigwigs not knowing it was coming, I'm still blown away by that. Not just the casinos and developers of Las Vegas, but auto manufacturers, banks, real estate moguls. CEOs get paid ridiculous sums of money for their "high stress" jobs, yet they seem to have no contingency plans. No Plan B, should things go south. No alternatives when people stop buying huge SUVs. Now that we have experienced very nearly another depression, will we be any better at this the next time?

What Happens in Vegas: More Now Known About Shooting on Las Vegas Strip

If Thursday's breaking-news shooting and car crash on the Las Vegas Strip proves anything, it's that CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is highly exaggerated. Events like this one--which did seem like it came from Hollywood--would barely be newsworthy if they happened as often as they do on that show. As it is, it was the number one news story on most news outlets, and trended on Twitter. Which may have--in some small way--been appreciated by the Maserati-driving aspiring rapper who met his end in front of Caesars Palace.

Image from source, Las Vegas Review-Journal

As for the "Las Vegas is dangerous" angle on the story, this kind of thing really could have happened anywhere that has happening night spots. I suppose we have more of them than most cities, but I can't see how this is the fault of Las Vegas. The news said that the driver of the Maserati made a video, rapping about girls and guns. As hard as it is for me to conflate pop culture (music, television, movies, video games) with real-life violence, this one seems to have played out enough times to show just a bit of causality. But it's really a shame it had to happen, and that innocent people have been hurt and killed. And I really hope they catch the bad guys.

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Argument at Aria involving Las Vegas rapper leads to deadly Strip shooting, crash

Kenny Cherry relished a dangerous lifestyle. The 27-year-old aspiring rapper, who called himself "Kenny Clutch," posed with guns and drugs in one YouTube video. In another, Cherry drove through the Las Vegas streets at night in a two-door Maserati, rapping about pimping women and shooting guns. . .

Read more (with video) at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

What Happens in Vegas: Shootout and Exploding Taxi on Las Vegas Strip

Wild. Nothing to add at this point, have to get to work!

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Las Vegas Strip Shooting, Crash Leave 3 Dead

Three people are dead and at least three more injured from a shooting and multi-car crash on Las Vegas Boulevard near Flamingo Road. Metro Police say a shooting ensued on the Strip in front of the casino early Thursday morning which set off a multi-car accident. . .

Read more at: 8 News Now 






 

What Happens in Vegas: Zarkana! (A Mini Review)

I've been away from the blog because--for an extremely rare change--I actually went to a Las Vegas show last night. A good friend scored some tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Zarkana at the Aria. I'd never been to Aria or the City Center complex it sits in, so even though The Other Half is under the weather, I took another good friend, and off we went!

My previous Cirque experiences were Mystère (twice) and Michael Jackson Immortal, and I loved both. They're French (Canadian) and weird, but they're amazing spectacles. Zarkana was better than both, to my estimation. It's similar in content to Mystère, but with less of the weird, and more of the marvel. It still has goofy clowns between acts, sure. But I found the whole thing much more relatable, and I loved the stagecraft. The stage and sets are gorgeous, and the organically shaped video screens wrapping around it really add to the experience.

The show includes a very talented juggler lady, some amazing acts of balance and strength, tightrope walking (with fire), flying acrobats, bouncing acrobats, climbing acrobats, and stunning visuals. Most of the time, I was gazing in wonderment, only occasionally cringing in fear that somebody was going to fall! 

These are the guys I was scared for.
Image from DerekLovesShopping.

So, though I can claim to be no expert on these sorts of things, I can heartily recommend Zarkana, if you're looking for a show when you're in Las Vegas. You have seven Cirque du Soleil shows alone to choose from, so you'll surely have options. But I got to thinking about some of the other shows I've seen, and they kind of pale next to the size and scope of a show like this one.

My score: Highly recommended.

What Happens in Vegas: The Marina Hotel Still Exists at MGM Grand

Image from Gaming for Gold

I've lived in Las Vegas for close to 16 years now, but I never knew this. I got lost in a Wiki-hole Sunday evening, reading about the MGM Grand fire of 1980, which was 30 years ago Sunday (thanks, Dan). I started reading various stories about strip properties, curious about what used to stand where the big resorts are today. It turns out, not only did the Marina Hotel used to stand at the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard, it still does! The west wing of MGM Grand has a stepped-down terrace effect that ends at the re-skinned Marina. I imagine this must've saved them a few million dollars, otherwise, why would they have bothered.  Anyway, I was involved in the opening of MGM Grand in 1993, and still had no idea of this little nugget of information. So, I figured it might be of interest to others.

Read about it here: VegasTodayAndTomorrow

Could Las Vegas Get a Gay Hotel and Casino?

Image (of cancelled "City by the Bay") from Vegas Today and Tomorrow

A gay hotel and casino in Las Vegas? Why not? It's a niche audience with disposable income. And Vegas sure could use a boost. It's a pretty nifty idea, even if it is in the early planning stages. Now, if we could do something about the same-sex marriage ban, they'd really be on to something.

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Flower Tower
Vegas could be ready for a gay hotel-casino

So let’s get right to it: The Fonfas want to build a $1.2 billion, 1,000-unit, 45-story hotel-casino catering primarily and openly to gays and lesbians and managed by the Wyndham hotel chain. It would boldly be called the Q, as in “queer.” And it would stand tall and proud by early in the next decade at the northwest corner of Sahara and the Las Vegas Strip as the first of its kind in the world. . .

Read more at: Las Vegas Weekly