Perhaps the Hard Rock brand owner needs to listen to some rock songs and read some rock history. The Hard Rock casino is not connected to the national Hard Rock chain. The Hard Rock casino has use of the name. Easy short hand: The Hard Rock in Vegas is where John Entwistle of the Who [...]
Las Vegas justifies its existence by being both a party destination and a place where serious conventions and business meetings can be conducted. Not everyone is willing to accept this negative capability of Vegas marketing. And, a business trip to Vegas risks being called a vacation only because it sits in the 702 area code. [...]
In January I left a story on the Adult Entertainment Expo to go to do my LA Times column on the Vegas based reality show Pawn Stars. Going from porn to pawn is just part of a day’s work. Rick Harrison, the owner, was the sort of wonderful eccentric and brilliant autodidact Nevada business libertarian [...]
These were the judge’s strong words. Not that Paris Hilton need find out. The judge sentenced Hilton to probation, and the felony charge became a misdemeanor plea. Nothing unusual about this outcome to the case from what I can tell. I think it is important to remember that Hilton was not driving. Cy Waits, the [...]
The second story I want to tell goes back so far into the Vegas nightlife past that Pure hadn’t opened and the nightclubs that are now gone included RA and C2K. One afternoon, a well established nightclub promoter invited me to go behind the scenes as he negotiated a deal with a casino owner. I [...]
I’ve been thinking how shocked, shocked everyone is about Cy Waits and Paris Hilton, and there seems a certain hypocrisy about the entire thing. So, this morning I remembered two old Vegas stories that I have never written up involving casinos, Vegas executives, nightclubs and drugs. The first one I am going to name names, [...]
Ever wonder what Flock of Seagulls would be like without the hair? I’ve been trying–starting with the title track, “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas”– to find at least one good thing to say about Brandon Flowers’ first solo disc, Flamingo. I failed.
This is the winning video for an MGM Grand contest, which features bad poetry well delivered. Some of the runner up videos on YouTube (just click through) are just as good. I enjoy that the creativity of people just goofing off is often so much more interesting than professional advertisements.
Yesterday– with me– in a suite at the Hard Rock, Holly Madison was wearing sexy lingerie. She was curled up in bed with an electric guitar. Then one of her friends also gorgeous, and also dressed like a fantasy, brushed passed me and jumped into bed next to her. The guitar was beautiful, too. I [...]
