Interactive advertising

The evils of advertising...

These special interactive ads were all over MGM Grand and the Monorail stations. A special projector beams an image from the ceiling. When you walk over the image, it reacts to your footsteps. I'd say only about 2 out of 10 people noticed these were actually reacting to their footsteps (the other 8 people were too busy trying to get to the casino). There was another one that completely changed the image to an ad for Cirque du Soleil's KA show when you walked over it.

Anyway, my point is that the advertising world is getting WAY too good at their jobs...

Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre

OK, yeah, so I got so drunk I wasn't really allowed to use the laptop anymore.
Also, I was so gone I was hitting on 18 on Blackjack (!!).

We were finally able to catch the Popavich Comedy Pet Theater this trip. And it wasn't so much a "pet show" as it was a show about an immigrant family's American experience and a peek at how they view this country and Americans.
Show Highlights:

• Scantily clad 15 yr-old daughter's provocative performance. On a Monday during school hours, no less.
• maudlin vaudeville-esque staples.
• The look Gregory Popovich would give his helpers when they messed up.
• **An American flag literally was waved. I'm not kidding.**
• animal-themed cocktails are served.
• the midwestern, middle-aged audience. Who look at you like you're Big Bucks Betty just because you bought a drink and a program...while they read it over your shoulder.

We highly recommend catching it.

General Vegas pics are in the laptop. I'll post them when I can get them transferred.

Today is my birthday, and I"m determined to NOT be sober for as long as possible...
So here's a statue we came accross in Harrah's Casino...






And here is a wall of water at the WYNN. The Wynn hotel is definitely the fanceest Casino in all of Vegas. But this restaurant is amazingly dramatic and fancy.

We'll have to try it sometime.

And here is the new must-have feature in a hotel room(along with a whirlpool garden-sized tub)...

and here is the same damned pic, downloaded twice. Have I been drinking that much? YES. Time to swtop blooging and continue on with my debaucherous birthday celebration.

Vegas.....

We made it to Vegas. I think this is our 5th or 6th trip so it is like wearing an old shoe. Albeit one covered in sparkles and with a stripper's clear heel. Check out the view from our balcony. Should be nicer once night falls. Video may not be available right away but should load soon.

Meanwhile enjoy a still photo....

Vegas: five days and counting....

Paris (las vegas) by night
Originally uploaded by tricky.

Birthday dinner reservations have been made at Mon Ami Gabi.
A nice bottle of champaign has been purchased.

Ah hell.

When we spotted this note posted on Crazy Mary's door yesterday, we thought "finally, she's being kicked out!" A party was beginning to take form in my head. Invitations would have to go out, calls made, Crazy Mary stories gathered.

Closer inspection this morning revealed the letter to be a notice from the local Heights public library branch alerting her to the arrival of her requested copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

I mentally cancelled the party, recalled the unread evites in my head. "Nevermind the barbecue fixins," I told my imaginary grocery store cashier, "party's off." But even in my head, the cashier gives me attitude.

VMA/Birthday Bash in Las Vegas

9 days 'til Vegas birthday bash...

Good gravy. Last night we discovered our Vegas arrival coincides with the big Mtv Video Music Awards (VMA).

This trip just got REAL interesting.

The VMAs will be held at the at the too-cool-for-the-hoi-polloi celeb hangout The Palms Hotel and Casino.

Who needs Cirque Du Soleil tickets? EVERY casino in town will be crawling with drunk record execs and teenage groupies wearing next to nothing on the hunt for Fall Out Boy. As every seasoned Las Vegas visitor knows, the Palms and Hard Rock will be THE celeb hotspots. What do you expect from a casino that features a restaurant called The Pink Taco?

So that got me thinking: What if you, Joe Nascar, wished to stay at one of the two hottest celeb-ground-zero mega-casinos in town:

• HARD ROCK: Rooms at the Hard Rock START at $399 that Sunday night (though the $519 room is really more desirable since it faces REHAB, their infamous pool facilities where Pamela Anderson just might get drunk enough to remove her top).


• PALMS: And you can forget about staying at the Palms. I called. It's so sold out that the reservationist laughed at me.

Anyway, I am so taking lots of pics of rock stars behaving badly, celebutards and their entourages, and the army of paparazzi following every.last.one of them.

Once we were in Vegas during a big Fight Night at the MGM, and it was the BEST people-watching ever. The casinos were infested with these super-hoochies in DESIGNER cheap-looking clothes, appearing bored while they fed their special $25 coins into the slot machines. And there was this uber-pimp decked out like a cowboy walking fast with a trail of statuesque gorgeous callgirls literally running in their stilletos trying to keep up with him (lesson: a pimp waits for no one).

I'm a big fan of observing peculiar human behavior, so if the people-watching is ANYTHING like fight night, the people-watching alone will be the BEST birthday present I could ever ask for.