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The Playground

Work is hard. Everybody needs recess.

June 8, 2008
Miss Exotic World contestants have it covered … mostly
August 5, 2008
Crowd flips for Philippine All Stars — and vice versa
June 9, 2008
Famed designer Willis never tires of, “What’s your sign?”
June 1, 2008
Scouring Las Vegas as part of a new media team
July 31, 2008
Off the street, onto the stage

Recent Posts

November 20, 2008
Hulk Hogan the humanitarian … who knew?
November 20, 2008
Popping the Kids in the Hall’s Vegas cherry
November 19, 2008
The Comedy Festival 2008 complete schedule
November 18, 2008
Eiffel Tower marks the spot for midnight arrival of 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau
November 18, 2008
The talented Mr. Blue

Archives

07.31.08 · 11:45 AM

Time still ticking at Flamingo Showroom

Now I can say it: Jerome, you missed a loop in the back. It’s the one we usually miss when slipping the eel-skin (or whatever manner of skin that might be) belt through the back of the ox blood-colored pants that is a crucial component to the ox blood-colored suit. It’s the one not quite in the middle, but near the middle, on the right. Not a huge deal, but the loop is there for a reason, and it’s rather ... Read more...

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07.31.08 · 3:43 AM

Off the street, onto the stage

Loews Hotel at Lake Las Vegas has been bumping to a very different beat for the past few days. Where there’s normally a pianist playing the classics, this weekend there’s a DJ spinning Snoop and Rick Ross. Accents from New Zealand, Japan and Trinidad rise from typically serene hallways, where dancers in jumpsuits, ties or Chuck Taylors stretch hamstrings against the hotel walls and count out rhythms with intense concentration. “Five, six, seven, eight.” Around every bend there’s another pack, ... Read more...

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07.31.08 · 1:16 AM

Meet the dancers

A decade old and still going strong, or at least still going, the annual Dance in the Desert festival celebrates dance entertainment that doesn’t come wrapped in feathers and sequins with a Barry Manilow soundtrack. While troupes come from all over the western U.S., some of the most exciting performances will be by performers from right here in Las Vegas. Meet some of Dance in the Deserts local talent. Company name: Gail Gilbert Dance Ensemble Director: Gail Gilbert What they ... Read more...

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07.30.08 · 11:43 AM

Happy National Cheesecake Day

The Cheesecake Factory at Caesars The Cheesecake Factory in Summerlin The Cheesecake Factory in Green Valley Treat yourself to something sweet today. In honor of its 30th anniversary, The Cheesecake Factory is offering slices of cheesecake today at the prices it charged when it first opened its doors in 1978: $1.50 per slice. The now ubiquitous chain started in Detroit with a small shop run by Oscar and Evelyn Overton. The couple later moved to Los Angeles where they expanded ... Read more...

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07.24.08 · 4:18 AM

More than candles blown out at Slash-A-Palooza

Maybe this all didn’t happen tonight. Maybe, on my walk through the parking garage leading to The Mirage, someone flung a brick at my head and knocked me cold, and the whole tableau played out in my concussed consciousness. Perhaps the great ventriloquist and soon-to-be Mirage headliner Terry Fator, was not joined onstage on a pool deck, which is usually reserved for seminude sunbathers, by the famously long-bearded Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Maybe it was a dream that Jason ... Read more...

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07.20.08 · 2:04 PM

Just call me the Minute (and a second) Man

Until the July 5 Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres fight at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts, it had been more than 10 years since I’d covered any boxing event. That fight ended in less time than it takes to boil an egg, 1 minute, 1 second, with Holt gathering himself after two knockdowns to knock Torres into la-la land with an overhand right. Last night I was on hand for the Anderson Silva-James Irvin UFC light-heavyweight bout at the ... Read more...

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07.19.08 · 6:22 PM

By George, Hard Rock sends a message

This afternoon I was driving along Flamingo Road, heading west across I-15, and hit the stoplight. Suddenly, I felt wasted, thanks to a strategically positioned billboard. As a long trail of cars waited for the green where Flamingo meets the I-15, I could not help but notice a big Hard Rock Hotel-Wasted Space billboard partially obscuring the view of the Palms, which is one of the Hard Rock’s more fierce rivals. “Rock and Roll Decadence,” reads the sign, which is ... Read more...

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07.18.08 · 10:35 AM

Who watches the Watchmen trailer?

The Watchmen trailer premiered online and in theaters with prints of The Dark Knight yesterday, and I find myself fairly underwhelmed. Granted, it’s been a while since I read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel, but the trailer makes no effort to convey the plot or even much of the general themes of the story. It’s a bunch of fairly cool-looking images, along with the pimping of director Zack Snyder as the “visionary director of 300.” It’s that ... Read more...

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07.14.08 · 12:38 PM

Spending a final night in the Spam can

You understand fully that it will not be a typical show when a horn player grabs a scarred metal flask and asks, “Is this the tequila or the scotch?” The musicians are as usual dressed in all-black, as is required, fitting for the funereal event about to unfold. But it is not entirely somber as the musicians who play such numbers as “Find Your Grail,” “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway” and “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” in ... Read more...

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07.7.08 · 11:37 PM

“You Can Pee When You’re Dead”: Doug Benson at the Backyard Comedy Show

For the fifth effort since their collaboration’s inception, Brandt Tobler and Matt Markman traded Tobler’s fenced-in gravel for Beauty Bar’s rear patio Thursday night when they welcomed Doug Benson to the Backyard Comedy Show. Following the pair’s opening sets, Benson welcomed the heavily-drinking crowd, asking, “How’s it going, Backyard Comedy Show? That means you all take it in the ass!” For a loose 45 minutes the VH1 talking head and star of the recent documentary Super High Me marveled at ... Read more...

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07.3.08 · 2:30 PM

Your New Best Friends gets a hand from Dick

It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime, you-gotta-know-someone-to-hear-about-it things. After all, Your New Best Friends, the variety production combining classic clowning with bawdy humor and modern attitude, debuted at the Onyx Theatre back in late April and has returned sporadically ever since. When creators and stars Wayne Wilson, Daniel Passer and John Gilkey weren’t taking the show to the likes of New York, L.A. and Seattle, that is. Or when they weren’t occupied with their full-time jobs as La Revecast members. ... Read more...

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07.1.08 · 10:08 AM

Line drives up the middle — a good way to ruin a night

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged about the Alsco softball team, staples of the Monday Men’s D1 Summer Adult Softball League at Arroyo Grande Sports Complex. I missed a couple of games while covering CineVegas, which is an unexcused absence to this crew. What I can provide as an update is, we are the worst team in the league. We lost another doubleheader Monday night, to a verbose and mostly paunchy ballclub sponsored by T-Bird Lounge ... Read more...

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Videos

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Cocktail of the Week

Cocktail of the Week Nov 20, 2008
by Xania Woodman

The Capital Grille $1,000 Luxury Martini

What could be better than a martini and caviar? Nothing! Especially when the caviar in question is a limited-edition White Topaz and Diamond Caviar rope bracelet, served up with a ...
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