Harrah's Embraces The Mid-Market

Liz Benston of the Las Vegas Sun has a terrific piece in today's newspaper breaking news about Harrah's new plans for the Strip. It's as though someone over there finally realized that (a) there are already enough hotel rooms and that the high-end of the market doesn't need any more options and (b) Harrah's knows mid-market best and there's nothing shameful about admitting that.

The Harrah's solution is something called Project Link, a rendering of which is above courtesy of Harrah's Entertainment. Basically, instead of imploding the Imperial Palace, Harrah's and Flamingo, they want to enhance that section of the Strip as the center of gravity for the mid-market tourist who wants reasonable accommodations and a safe, fun place to drink, party and hookup. (It's fascinating, really, how the east side of the Boulevard from Harrah's to Bally's is for one tier and the west side of the same street from Caesars to Aria, is intended for an entirely different clientele, but I digress.)

As Benston explains it, Project Link would be a pedestrian mall area between the IP and the Flamingo from the Strip to Koval punctuated on the eastern end with a mammoth ferris wheel. Along the way, they envision a corridor of as many as 20 restaurants and bars opening out to the pedestrian area.

There are several reasons why this is a brilliant idea. For one, it just sounds like fun and a space where critical mass can build among those priced out or turned off by the posh nightclub scene. For another, from what I can tell it wouldn't create any new traffic problems and, in fact, could give new relevance to the Las Vegas Monorail, should it still be in business by then. And also, it wouldn't add any new gaming or hotel capacity.

The big loser could be Fremont Street because the ideas and target audiences are similar. But both have their own thing, and Project Link -- they'll have to have a better name for it, of course -- could never pretend to recreate an Old Vegas feel. So there's that.

Seems like a great idea. Too bad debt-overwhelmed Harrah's has no money to get going on it for quite a while and by then, God knows, they'll be on to another Big Idea. And none of this resolves the question of what Harrah's plans to do with its extensive land holdings east of the Strip. You might recall their last Big Idea was to build an unnecessary traffic-disaster of a sports arena behind Bally's.

Titty Smackdown: Crazy Horse v Peepshow

It is true, this show was not for me. Literally. "Crazy Horse Paris" is a burlesque show at MGM Grand that, ostensibly, exists primarily to turn on heterosexual men. And there's nothing wrong with that, exactly. It's what this city was built on, right?

Except that I feel a little sorry for the heterosexual guys out there. You deserve better.

I was primed to like this show, which I finally got out to see last night because of the publicity stunt that is the blink-and-miss-her guest star gig by ex-"Baywatch" jiggler Carmen Electra. The posters look cool, the showroom was intimate and exotic and so much else about MGM Grand these days is all so classy. Plus, R-J columnist Doug Elfman said the other day when we were prepping to begin our semi-regular sparring match on KNPR that he considered CHP to be the best, most artistic stripper show in the city.

Sigh. I suppose that could be so if you ignore the awful choreography, simplistic tableaus, kaleidoscopic lighting, extremely poor lip-synching and comical costumes. There were some geniunely erotic and creative moments -- there's a scene where we see just the bottom half of a woman with a perfectly formed bottom and legs as she removes her stockings -- but more often it's a bunch of women bopping around in wigs, doing something repetitive until the music ran out. All yours for $60 a seat; what's it cost for a pole dance at Olympic Gardens these days?

And Carmen Electra? That was just...sad. Like a couple of years ago when we all got snookered into seeing the atrocious Hans Klok magic show at P-Ho because Pamela Anderson was in it, we all waited and waited and waited for the former Mrs. Rodman-Navarro to appear and she finally did about halfway through. She showed no boobies at that point, just shook her big hair about and rolled around on a lip-shaped couch. Yawn. She returned a good 20 minutes later to dance with some bendy poles, vulgarly grinding her g-stringed crack into one of them and sort of obliterating the patina of high-class CHP pretends to attain. Oh, and she showed one breast at the end of the misery, clad in a pasty which, I'm now told by every straight male reader of this blog, doesn't count.

Carmen, in the show through this weekend, does return in one final scene fully topless -- and her surgically created boobs are quite lovely with a cute flair to the nipples -- so I guess the vaginally inclined boys got what they wanted and seemed forgiving of how brief the satisfaction was. But I kept feeling sorry for Carmen that, at 37, she was reduced to such tawdriness to pay the mortgage. There could be no other explanation for why she's there other than the money; she sure didn't put a whole lot of pride in making the performance much.

There are dissenting opinions, to be sure. The R-J's Norm Clarke Tweeted during the show: "Carmen is writhing on the red velvet couch in the shape of Michelle Pfeifer's lips. Eat you hearts out Baker Boys." A few moments later, he Tweeted this: "Swinging door routine...they might be the 8 --ok who's counting -- most breathtaking performers on stage at one time in Vegas."

But even Norm seemed to lose interest; his next two Tweets, sent during the show, were about the Vegas location of the Travelocity Travel Gnome. I thought maybe someone else was Tweeting that stuff for him, but then he wrote: "But I digress....back to the Land of Merkin...and the Hot Legs routine."

OK, so you're thinking, "You're GAY. What do you know about shows about sexy women?" Fair enough. Except that I love "Peepshow" at Planet Hollywood. That is a show with high production value, a bit of a story, original music sung live and really creative ways of presenting gorgeous topless women. Also, at the moment, it has another It Girl, Holly Madison, who unlike Carmen is actually in her career prime. Holly's also required to do a little actual dancing and acting, however uncomfortable she may appear doing so.

The irony of all this is that Crazy Horse Paris is more akin to Crazy Girls, the struggling Riviera show whose operators insist remains a viable business despite a nightly audience of about 100 -- and God knows how few of those suckers paid full price -- and a cast larger than the now-gone "An Evening at La Cage." The most important difference between the two, besides the fact that CHP admittedly has more beautiful women, is that Crazy Girls doesn't pretend to be high art. CHP does, but it ain't.

The Show is UP: G-Force Winds

After last week's blustery Andrew Dice Clay chat, saxophonist Kenny G would seem like a light-hearted antidote. And he is, for the most part. But he also gets a bit crabby and snarky, so it was a good time all around. You know the drill: click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. -sf

July 9: G-Force Winds

On stage and on your stereo, he is laid back and comfortable. But in tonight’s interview, saxophonist Kenny G shows other sides of his persona: arrogant, vain, opinionated and controversial. The musician, who has sold 75 million albums worldwide, also provides a fascinate behind-the-scenes story about his first time on Johnny Carson, discusses Bill Clinton’s influence on the popularity of the sax and has some terse words for audience-scolding showstoppers like Patti LuPone.

Plus, a special INTERVIEW edition of the Trivia Question featuring Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis, aka Curtis Flowers speaking for the first time about his alias.

In Banter: Michael Jackson's memorial, Steve is Hispanic, the WSOP is off and running, The Hangover is mostly Vegasly accurate and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Tickets for Kenny G on July 10-12 at the Orleans
Kenny G’s website
Alan Albert’s restaurant on Yelp
YouTube clips of Paris Jackson, Mariah Carey and Jermaine Jackson at MJ’s memorial
VegasHappensHere.Com on the possible Jackson Fourish show
VegasHappensHere.Com on Steve’s Hispanic excursion
Survey America’s website
Phil Hellmuth’s arrival at the WSOP on YouTube
Doyle Brunson’s Twitter feed
The Review-Journal’s report on the overage at WSOP’s Fourth Day One
Doug Elfman’s column about Carmen Electra in Crazy Horse Paris
Who is new "Peepshow" Aubrey O’Day?
The YouTube clip of the Vegas TV reporter’s Fremont Street tussle
Kenny G’s Guiness Record for holding a note for 45 minutes challenged

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, on TMZ re: Jackson!!!

This is so great! Click on the image here and zoom ahead to about 1:46ish. The rest is nonsense.

A bevy of MJ Memorial media notes

The debate over whether all that attention and hullabaloo rendered to the passing of Michael Jackson bores me. What's the point of arguing over it? It is, as a former Texas governor once said outrageously of rape, like the weather: It's gonna happen, so just relax and enjoy it.

And so I -- and millions of others -- did so. I suspect the ratings -- like yesterday's funerary show -- were pretty darn awesome. Jermaine Jackson knocking it out of the park with "Smile"? Made me rethink my objections to a Jackson Fourish show in Vegas, although Wynn is still the wrong property for it. Brooke Shields' "What's with the glove?" moment? Great, although I wish she had said what Jackson's answer was. And that little girl breaking down for her Daddy? Crushing. Classic moment. Prediction: Princes William and Harry will be calling to console the Jackson kids soon, if not already.

The only thing that bugged me was the hyperbole about what an unprecedented to-do this was (The A.P.'s Ted Anthony: "a celebrity spectacle like no other") when, in fact, that was so clearly a ridiculous notion. Princess Diana's death actually paralyzed a nation, raised ridiculous sums of money for charity, involved millions of people cramming along a public route to see her coffin, nearly unseated the world's most prestigious monarchy and resulted an Oscar-winning film. Just imagine what THAT would've been like in the age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Happily, I'm not the only one doing the comparison on this score. In today's Las Vegas Sun, columnist Ron Kantowski compares the MJ Memorial Show to a list of prominent funerals. He pointed out that Ayrton Senna, a Formula One champ from Brazil who died in 1994,
drew 3 million casket-gawkers, and I bet that included virtually no Americans. Pope John Paul II drew 4 million. It seems to me that Ronald Reagan drew more people and at least as much sustained TV coverage. Granted, there wasn't a chance for the public to visit Jackson's casket, but still.

Another tip of the hat is due to the Review-Journal's Jason Bracelin and Mike Blasky. I don't know which one of them wrote this, but the lead sentence of their report on Vegas crowds gathering to watch the memorial yesterday at movie theaters was pitch-perfect and had a wonderful ring to it: "The theater was dark and the mood wasn't any brighter."

Finally, it must be said that my pal (and Miles' KVBC colleague) Alicia Jacobs provided some really cool coverage via Twitter. Say what you want about her as a journalist -- it seems to me she occupies a unique netherland between being a reporter and being a celebrity who uses her connections to take the public into worlds we don't usually get to go -- but her @AliciaJacobs text and photo Tweets from her up-close seat at Staples yesterday added a Vegasy dimension to the thing.

The whole thing has me even more psyched about the MJ Memorial benefit concert @ErichBergen and I are in the process of organizing. Details coming very soon!

And now, a LuPonism dissenter

I've been pretty vocal in support of Patti LuPone's mission to remind people what is appropriate and polite while watching a live performance such as a concert or musical. In fact, I wish the people on the movie screen could yell at the audience from time to time.

But fair's fair and I asked saxophonist Kenny G about the LuPone moments on this week's episode of "The Strip" podcast, which is already available for download. (Formal posting with links coming.)

Mr G., who will perform this weekend in the same showroom (for double the ticket price, natch) hadn't heard about her Vegas and New York showstopping moments and was appalled. Here's what he said:

"Just the fact that they’ve already paid for the tickets and taken the time out of their lives to make it to the gig is plenty. If you start trying to tell them how to act during the concert, as long as they’re not violent, of course, that’s taking your role as a whatever, an entertainer, to a level that I don’t think that’s fair. What if the guy’s texting because he’s got a sick kid at home and he’s so worried that he may have to leave the concert and take somebody to a hospital? You’re going to interrupt the concert to tell the guy he shouldn’t be doing that?

You never know what’s going on with people. If somebody’s on the telephone, if I’m playing the most beautiful melody and somebody’s leaning over and whispering to somebody instead of looking at me, who knows? Maybe they’re asking that person to marry them? There’s no way that you can ever, as an artist in my opinion, judge an audience like that and stop a concert and embarrass somebody like that. If somebody’s yelling and screaming at you during a concert, well that’s a different story, they’re getting in everybody’s way.

Generally, speaking, yeah, there’s a lot more texting going on, sure. There’s a lot more picture-taking because the days when they say no cameras are over because everybody’s got a cell phone that’s got a camera. You can’t say no cameras. Everybody’s got 'em and everybody’s using them. Instead of lookin’ at you, they’ve got their camera phone between your face and their face and that’s the way it is."

I followed up.

Friess: You’re saying the folks who pay $75 to see you at the Orleans are welcome to take your picture?

Kenny G: They can do whatever they want to do. I don’t care.

So, Orleans ushers, that's the good word: Stand down. Of course, had the Orleans ushers stood UP in enforcing the rules at Patti's show, she wouldn't have needed to take it upon herself to deal with the issue.

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/Kenny G

You think Kenny G and you think bland, but join us tonight for the live version of "The Strip" and hear some unexpected sides: arrogant, vain, controversial, even a little rude. But Mr. G is also a terrific storyteller who reveals how he flummoxed his own management by switching up what he sang at the last minute on his first "Tonight Show" appearance and has some terse words about the showstopping of one Ms. Patti LuPone. Kenny appears July 10-12 in the same Orleans showroom where LuPone did two weeks ago.

Oh! And the answer to this week's trivia question joins us LIVE to explain his alias.

We get going at 7 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com, where you can hear the live stream, the chat room and view the studio cam.

Come on down or wait for the podcast version, which should be out tomorrow. Subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link.