The Playground
Work is hard. Everybody needs recess.
11.29.08 · 11:22 AM
Celebrity NFL Picks: Among hot backs, Turner is the burner
It’s not too surprising that the featured back in this weekend’s Falcons-Chargers game is tied for the league lead in touchdowns and has surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in only 11 games. The surprise, however, is that the featured back is not heralded LaDainian Tomlinson of the Chargers. Instead of L.T., the best runner in this game – this season, anyway — is M.T. That’s Michael Turner, Atlanta’s blooming star who spent a few seasons as L.T.’s backup before taking a ... Read more...
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Facebook11.27.08 · 10:59 PM
Post holiday exercise for the lazy and bored
On the proverbial Morning After, you wake up feeling satiated and stung by varying degrees of guilt. But instead of reaching for a cigarette, you need Tums. It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and the only thing that can save you from a winter of flabby flesh shamefully hidden under sweats is exercise. What, you don’t like to exercise? That’s because you’ve never gotten creative. Try any or all of these inane, insane ideas, and you’ll never need a treadmill again. ... Read more...
11.27.08 · 3:38 PM
Celebrating an only-in-Vegas Thanksgiving holiday
It’s Thanksgiving morning and I am at The Orleans, having just dropped a friend off at the airport and running a quick errand to collect money on a bet I won a couple weeks ago. I’ve had this slip in my wallet, sharing space with my new green-inked Greenspun Interactive business cards and a dry-cleaning receipt from Tiffany Cleaners. That I am in a casino on Thanksgiving doesn’t seem at all odd for this Las Vegan. The casino activity is ... Read more...
11.25.08 · 12:54 PM
Adam Hunter gets real: behind the scenes of Last Comic Standing
For the last few weeks, comedians have been invading our fair city. Last weekend was the fourth annual Comedy Festival, and before that the Last Comic Standing Tour visited the House of Blues, where this year’s top five finalists performed live with Louis Ramey as emcee. The line up for the Last Comic tour included Jim Tavarre, a British comedian who totes his upright bass to gigs and always wears a tux, the weakest link of the show, neon shirt-wearing ... Read more...
11.24.08 · 7:40 PM
Random crap I’d like to buy today: Princess Bride t-shirts
If I had to list my top 10 favorite movies of all time, The Princess Bride is planted somewhere firmly in the middle. Rob Reiner’s 1987 film about a fake pirate, a vengeful swordsman and rodents of unusual size is sweet and a bit cheesy with just enough kick, much like a maple turkey sandwich with melted Swiss and spicy mustard. (Is it dinner time yet?) Finally, someone has done humanity a favor and immortalized this great film on one ... Read more...
11.24.08 · 5:30 PM
Oldest profession is newest off-Strip show
It’s almost 1 a.m. and a crowd is forming amid the racks of lingerie, massage oils and exotic fetish gear. A few doors down, something illicit is going on inside the Green Door, but this crowd is looking for a very different kind of erotic show. Cirque du Soleil cast member Wassa Coulibaly’s The Art of Prostitution debuted at the Onyx Theatre, a 96-seat venue tucked away in the back of a sex shop in Commercial Center off Sahara Ave., ... Read more...
11.24.08 · 1:54 PM
A Weekly shout out from Dave Attell at TCF
I’m sitting in the second row at Dave Attell’s Saturday night show, jotting notes every now and then and trying not to be distracted by the extremely drunk guy caterwauling on my right (“Too drunk to go to Hoover Dam!” Obnoxious laugh We were too drunk to go to Hoover Dam!” Obnoxious laugh), when I hear something surprising. Dave Attell says the words “Las Vegas Weekly.” Of course, the current host of Comedy Central’s The Gong Show with Dave Attell ... Read more...
11.24.08 · 1:36 PM
Gourmet restaurants do Thanksgiving right
Traditionally, Thanksgiving means that mom, dad, possibly grandma, an aunt, some cousins and any other family members old enough to handle a knife spend the entire day in the kitchen, peeling dozens of potatoes, pulling out turkey gizzards, chopping piles of vegetables and struggling with flour, sugar and the KitchenAid mixer to produce an extravagant meal without creating a disaster area. In my household, Thanksgiving also includes a big football game on the street, having to tell everyone at the ... Read more...
11.24.08 · 2:41 AM
A very Vegas Thanksgiving menu
It’s not the tryptophan in turkey that makes you sleepy after eating a Thanksgiving meal, it’s that the food has bored you to bed. Stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce are, of course, comfort food classics, but as far as excitement is concerned, ho hum. This year, we thought our Thanksgiving meal should reflect the city we live in. We’re not cooking each course using alcohol or serving it all buffet style; rather, we decided to take advantage of the ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 10:39 PM
John Oliver for president! (in eight years, or so)
If one thing was proven this week at The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace, it’s that comedians are very smart people. Never mind that they try to make a living at a desperately hard profession or that many spend hours writing and talking about their genitalia. Outwitting ever more jaded audiences and tricking them into laughing for an hour straight, isn’t for the feint of heart or feeble of mind. Saturday night, John Oliver and friends were more than up ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 8:35 PM
Racial comedy is recession-proof with Mike Epps
As my date and I enter the back of the dark, packed Augustus Ballroom, Mike Epps has already started his show, rapping and spoofing Lil’ Wayne. “Look at all these white people who came to see me! I didn’t know y’all knew me!” From what I can make out of the many Baby Phat, Louis Vuitton and Sean Jean-rocking audience, we are actually two of the only white people there. And we are certainly not his target audience. “Don’t leave ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 2:27 PM
From start to finish, the crowd belongs to Russell Peters
I have an admission. Two weeks ago, I had no idea who Russell Peters was. That may not sound so terribly shocking, after all, he’s Canadian and I haven’t been to Canada in years. He’s also a comedian, and I don’t follow the stand up scene too closely. So, really Peters is my Achilles heel, the Canadian comic. On Friday night at The Comedy Festival in Caesars Palace I found myself surrounded with Peters’ fans at his midnight Russell Peters ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 2:15 PM
“Bagg of Friends” takes late night comedy, and comics, across the street
Imagine the chance to go back in time and see some of today’s leading comedians perform in the small venues they frequented before they made it big. Now imagine it in present day Vegas, and right across the street from the city’s biggest annual comedy festival. The LA Comedy Club at the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood began hosting informal late night shows featuring a handful of Comedy Festival comics this past Thursday. “It’s kind of a fun, organic ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 1:59 PM
All grown up, Kids in the Hall still offend (phew)
The Kids in the Hall may now be bonafide grown-ups but that doesn’t mean their distinct brand of humor has lots its unrefined charm. On Friday at The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace, The Kids demonstrated that despite an extended hiatus, the troupe is just as offensive as ever. The Canadian quintet can still make us laugh until our guts hurt and blush like schoolgirls. The following is just a sampling of the off-color and controversial content discussed during their ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 1:58 PM
An experience in Pure energy with DJ AM
There are different levels of being alive. There is the level of being lucky to be alive, to be living. Adam Goldstein, who was nearly killed in a plane crash with his friend Travis Barker back on Sept. 19, is luckily alive. But Goldstein’s alter-ego, the ceaselessly bobbing DJ AM who spins dance music from such throbbing hotspots as LAX and Pure in Las Vegas, this guy is alive. And it was last night and early this morning that I ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 1:37 PM
Caliente Comedy serves up a trio of laughs at TCF
Caliente Comedy at TCF featured three of the brightest stars in the Latin American stand-up community. Anjelah Johnson has become a big star on You Tube and MADtv with her impression of the Vietnamese nail salon lady, a character she brought along to her performance. Her impressions highlight cultural stereotypes without being overly critical – they’re still politically incorrect, but not so bad you couldn’t share it with your mom. She pointed out that she had been an Oakland Raiderette ... Read more...
11.23.08 · 3:16 AM
The Kids in the Hall consider resident Vegas show
The Kids in the Hall played their first Vegas show this past Friday, but it won’t be the last local show for the wacky Canadian quintet if they have their way. A resident Vegas show is in the works. “We’re looking to find something for four, maybe three nights a week,” one of the now fully-grown Kids, Scott Thompson, said early Saturday morning. Sipping a martini and surrounded by fellow comedians during an informal after-show cocktail hour at a nondescript ... Read more...
11.22.08 · 6:10 PM
Deliciously crude words of wisdom from David Alan Grier
Bursting through the curtain with his shirt up and his gut out, David Alan Grier strutted around stage as the crowd screamed in approval. “They should change the name of Vegas to ‘Fuck yeah!!’ You got to be wild when you go to Vegas. Be like, ‘Fuck it; let’s eat three breakfasts! Ahhhhhhh!!!” Two F bombs in three sentences (plus a scream), about the F word/sentence ratio that Grier kept up throughout the two hour show. He was on such ... Read more...
11.22.08 · 12:44 PM
Celebrity NFL Picks: A lateral, a botched call and scads of affected bettors
Regardless of which side you were on, anybody who had action on last weekend’s Steelers-Chargers game has a story to tell for the ages. The only 11-10 game in NFL history was filled with big plays, lots of snow, and some controversy –- with an ending that affected a lot of wallets. If you’re reading this, chances are you know what happened, so I won’t recount it start-to-finish, but on the game’s final play, the Chargers tried a series of ... Read more...
11.22.08 · 12:23 PM
The Comedy Festival! Now tastier and skankier!
If Romy and Michelle were witty with a slutty sense of humor and reasonable singing voices, they’d be New York duo Tastiskank. Standing on a small stage at The Comedy Festival’s free admission LOL Lounge last night, Sarah Litzsinger and Kate Reinders looked like a pair of Skipper dolls. Each wore a frilly pastel cocktail dress and shiny tiara, and with the most benign of smiles, they sang about boys, relationships and love. When I walked in they were midway ... Read more...
11.22.08 · 11:21 AM
A “Seinfeld” reunion? Jerry makes predictions at the Colosseum
If the saying “you can’t make something out of nothing,” had an ounce of truth to it, Jerry Seinfeld wouldn’t be where he is today. Or where he was last night for that matter, playing to an enthused crowd at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace as a headliner for The Comedy Festival. The master of observational comedy and star of the eponymous sitcom about nothing doesn’t have a shtick, really. He simply picks a vignette from a person’s life and ... Read more...
11.21.08 · 9:06 PM
Cheech & Chong, and bong problems
Checking in from Cheech & Chong Roasted at The Comedy Festival, we report what might be an entertainment first: the taping of the show, which will be broadcast on Nov. 30 on TBS, has been halted because the giant prop bong - which has been stuffed with a leafy substance - refuses to stay lit. Emcee Brad Garrett and two stagehands are working on the big water pipe now. Read more...
11.21.08 · 8:52 PM
Breuer and Correale talk domestic hilarity at TCF
If you’ve ever tried to build furniture, you know about the inevitability of arguing with one’s spouse while attempting to put together an Ikea desk. “Their motto should be ‘Ikea: We hope your marriage is stronger than our furniture,’” joked Pete Correale, who took the stage first, during his show with Jim Breuer Thursday night at Caesars Palace. Charming with a heavy New York accent, Correale spun jokes mainly about being a young married. And married sex: “Dirty talk is ... Read more...
11.21.08 · 8:30 PM
Famous friends to join Ian Bagg for late night comedy
If the large theater shows at The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace, aren’t your thing, you can still see some of the fest’s best acts in a more intimate and informal club setting. Just head across the street and a few blocks south to the LA Comedy Club at Trader Vic’s inside the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood. In addition to a beautiful view of the Strip from the top of the restaurant, you’ll get to see a special ... Read more...
11.21.08 · 1:59 PM
A few of our favorite one-liners from Josh Blue and Ralphie May at TCF
From the opener Ron G.: “We need some cereal for black folks, like Condoleezza Rice Krispies.” From Josh Blue: “I feel like a chicken nugget under these lights.” “I don’t swear. I just have really well-timed Tourette’s.” Referring to his curved hand due to his cerebral palsy: “I got a sponsorship deal with Nike – I was born with a swoosh.” Another palsy reference, this time about holding his newborn son: “I’m not shaking the baby, I’m just holding him!” ... Read more...
11.21.08 · 1:06 PM
An Ellen double take from the under-40 set
The six most surprising events at Ellen’s “Even Bigger Really Big Show” 1. An impromptu boy band creation: When the stage manager asked people to get up and dance before the show started, four men took to the stage and desperately tried to coordinate their dance moves. One man even took the mic and got the crowd clapping along. When the N Sync’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” came on, they almost had a moment of unison until the one dude who ... Read more...
11.20.08 · 11:09 AM
Hulk Hogan the humanitarian … who knew?
Superstar wrestler Hulk Hogan caught a break from his recent string of bad publicity when he received an unlikely award at unlikely place Wednesday afternoon. The Hulkster was honored with a humanitarian award presented by the National Indian Gaming Association for his work with the Dreamseekers Foundation at the Las Vegas Global Gaming Expo. Hogan and NIGA president Ernie Stevens co-founded the non-profit organization to provide Native American children with the resources to further their education. Hogan has been known ... Read more...
11.20.08 · 2:09 AM
Popping the Kids in the Hall’s Vegas cherry
Vegas has long had a taste for established comedians. The Seinfelds and the Sammys have always had room at the table; Ellen is a welcome guest, too. Even Danny Gans manages to hold onto a theater on the Strip. But does a city where mainstream appeal is a hallmark of success have an appetite for alternative comedy? The Kids in the Hall are about to find out. This Friday, the Canadian comedy sketch group, which enjoyed some mainstream success via ... Read more...
11.18.08 · 3:27 PM
Eiffel Tower marks the spot for midnight arrival of 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau
Words like young and new are rarely used to describe good wine. In some ways, they are a counterpoint to the things we look for in wine – maturity, aging, a fullness of flavor that we equate with years in oak or steel followed by more in a cellar collecting dust. But for one day each year a new vintage steals the attention of oenophiles around the world, as they pronounce in unison, “Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!” In accordance ... Read more...
11.17.08 · 5:06 PM
Living the (culinary) dream with “Top Chef” gaming
We’ll be the first to admit that we love Top Chef in all its protein obsessed, foaming, faux-hawked glory, but two new interactive games based around the series have taken foodie fandom to a newly crazy level. First off, there’s Fantasy Top Chef. Similar to the black hole-like time suck known as fantasy sports, which are even garnering air time on ESPN (Has everyone forgotten that these are fantasy teams? As in, not real?), Bravo’s online fantasy game lets viewers ... Read more...
11.15.08 · 7:53 PM
Miss Nevada contestants show off their sashes, personalities?
Outside on the Hawaiian Tropic Zone patio, the evening wind is messing up the pageant contestants’ hair, and fluttering their white silk sashes and dresses. A white-haired man with rhinestones spelling “Rock On” across the back of his shirt is trying to get all the onlookers out of his way so he can get his shot. He is frustrated, like a man with a frosted cake trying to push away all the flies that are hovering and settling. He lines ... Read more...
11.15.08 · 9:02 AM
Celebrity NFL Picks: Turn out the lights, the party’s over — wait! No it isn’t
There are certain things an NFL player simply can’t do. You hear about them all the time from announcers. If a receiver drops a pass because he took his eyes off the ball to look at would-be tacklers, the announcer, without fail, always says the same thing: “He tried to run before the caught the ball.” If the receiver catches a third-down pass, but is a yard or two short of the first-down marker and is tackled immediately, the announcer ... Read more...
11.14.08 · 5:39 PM
AAA graces Vegas with Five Diamond ratings, again
On Friday, November 14, AAA announced it’s 2009 Five Diamond Award-winning restaurants, given to establishments that are “renowned and consistently provide a world-class experience. … ‘haute cuisine’ at its best.” This year the coveted rating was bestowed on five Las Vegas restaurants: Alex, Joël Robuchon, Le Cirque, Picasso and for the first time, Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace. For first time honorees, the Five Diamond designation comes after a rigorous review process, which begins with the restaurant applying for ... Read more...
11.12.08 · 3:13 PM
Top 10 reasons to be excited for Top Chef Season 5
On November 12, the fifth season of Bravo’s culinary competition, Top Chef kicks off at 10 p.m., and we can barely contain our excitement over the kitchen drama, rice disasters, foam foibles and incredible food to come. To help you share our anticipation we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 reasons why you should tune in and follow the culinary battle. 10. Blogs – Every season Bravo invites past competitors and judges to weigh in on the weekly drama ... Read more...
11.11.08 · 6:56 PM
Turning up the heat with the Firefighter Combat Challenge
I’ve always had a thing for firefighters. There’s something about a well-muscled man in uniform with ash and sweat streaking across his face hurtling towards a fire while everyone else runs for cover, that I find both heroic and hopelessly attractive. Of course, in reality, most firemen look less like Herb Ritts’s portrait “Fred with Tires” and more like somebody’s aging father with a strong affection for firehouse chili and Bud Light. The heroism remains the same; the washboard abs ... Read more...
11.11.08 · 6:38 PM
Get the WSOP table, even if you can’t afford a seat at it
Can you imagine playing your Thursday night $20 hold ‘em game on the very table where the November Nine made history at the 2008 World Series of Poker? Envision saying “shuffle up and deal” as your buddy tosses out cards touched by the WSOP Final Table players. Poker fanatics across the world can rejoice at the rare opportunity to own a piece of WSOP history. This year’s tournament has seen many firsts including the youngest ever Main Event champion (Peter ... Read more...
11.11.08 · 4:07 PM
Silverton’s Mi Casa steals the spotlight at illuminating awards
You would think a sizzling plate of beef fajitas and lobster skewers, a basket of crispy chips paired with fresh guacamole, a shot of aged tequila and a dessert of warm cinnamon churros would be enough. But this is Vegas, and enough is never enough. To go with its menu of Mexican favorites, Mi Casa Grill Cantina inside the Silverton Casino Lodge has taken dining ambiance to a whole new level, installing an elaborate, colorful lighting system that was recently ... Read more...
11.10.08 · 6:29 PM
Inside the “other service industry” with a former madam
Last week during the Vegas Valley Book Fair, noteworthy authors, professors and journalists gathered in a city not known for its literary chops to talk art and the written word. Held at the Historic Fifth Street School, there were book signings and poetry readings in the courtyard, workshops on how to get published and novelists leading discussions called “Environment and Identity: The Shores of Selfhood Writers” and “Overlooking the Landscape of America; Seeing a Thing Is Not Seeing Everything Else.” ... Read more...
11.8.08 · 1:40 PM
The return of the freak show with 999 Eyes
In 1629, a man named Lazarus and his parasitic twin brother, who was attached to his chest and dangled in front of him with his left leg sticking out, his eyes shut and his mouth open, decided to take a European tour. The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, toured the world as an inseparable duo in the 1830s before settling down as slave-owning plantation owners, marrying two sisters and fathering 10 and 11 children respectively. In the 19th century, ... Read more...
11.8.08 · 12:48 PM
Celebrity NFL Picks: We couched a better first half than the Raiders
At halftime of the Atlanta Falcons-Oakland Raiders game on Sunday, I looked at the statistics and realized something. From my couch, where the line of scrimmage is determined by the location of the remote and the potato chips, I actually had a better first half than the Raiders. We each had zero first downs. The Raiders had negative two yards of total offense, and I was holding steady at zero yards lost. And since fumbled potato chips don’t count in ... Read more...
11.7.08 · 7:06 PM
A reading from Harry Fagel, the poet-cop
Sergeant Harry Fagel has seen things you can’t forget, like a ten-inch serrated Rambo-style knife plunged into a woman’s vagina and left inside to bleed her to death. He’s seen the hookers, the homeless, all the things that we know go bump in the night on downtown streets and in hotel rooms, parked cars and suburban track homes. He’s been a Metro cop specializing in vice (prostitution), narcotics, robbery and homicide for 15 years and has lived in Vegas for ... Read more...
11.7.08 · 6:24 PM
Move over hold ‘em, there’s a new game in town
Every year at the Gaming Life Expo, new forms of poker are touted as the Next. Big. Thing. Casino execs don’t seem to pay much attention to these new gimmicks as the mainstays in Strip poker rooms are still limit and no limit Texas hold ‘em, and the occasional 7 Card Stud or Pot Limit Omaha game. Dream Team Poker is a new type of card game designed to let players develop poker strategies in a team format. On Saturday, ... Read more...
11.7.08 · 5:52 PM
Taking a turn — several, actually — in the Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter
I open my eyes in the fuzzy light of still-curtained morning. The cell phone reads an hour before the alarm is scheduled to go off, but there’s no going back to sleep. It’s flight day and I’m picturing a helicopter sinking below the surface of Lake Mead. I’m inside it, pounding on the glass as the light fades away. The mild panic began the morning before when I got a call from Red Bull field-marketing manager Greg Espinoza. “The good ... Read more...
11.6.08 · 5:44 PM
Tool singer’s wine is music to their ears
“These people are way better behaved than the people in Arizona.” A Whole Foods employee patrols the line, handing out wine menus to the Tool fans and wine junkies who wrap around the outside of the high end grocery store. Dozens of people have shown up at the Henderson market to wait an hour plus in the 50-degree temperatures, not to buy concert tickets, but to get a bottle of Tool lead vocalist Maynard James Keenan’s wine signed by him ... Read more...
11.3.08 · 5:19 PM
Celebration goes graveside for Day of the Dead
Pop quiz: A Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) celebration includes: A) Dancing and drinking the night away in Christian Audigier at a party hosted by former Baywatch star “Jeremy Jackson.” B) Plunging into pollo con mole negro and caramel flan at Diego’s Mexican restaurant inside the MGM. C) Decorating sugar and ceramic skulls, taking food and flowers to loved ones’ graves, partaking of pan de muerto, singing and dancing to live mariachi bands, building elaborate ofrendas—altars—dedicated to ... Read more...
11.1.08 · 3:25 PM
Our football still catching on in the land of the other football
The NFL’s effort to have global appeal is going to take some time. Imagine that you’re a Briton, and you’ve spent your whole life watching soccer. You have a general understanding that the American version of football involves pads, using your hands, and that kicking the ball over the horizontal goal bar is a good thing. Fine, you get all that. They send a couple of teams across the ocean to give you a glimpse. Good deal. Grab some tea, ... Read more...
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SMS Alerts
Featured Cocktail
May 15, 2013
by
Sabrina Chapman
The Golden Pillar: An architectural cocktail built for XS
This Sunday, XS nightclub celebrates the grand reopening of its after-dark pool party, Night Swim. Along with the bash comes a new offering of signature cocktails served by the pitcher, ...
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