The Show is UP: Bill Boyd

Here's this week's show. At the end of it, Miles shouts out for your Vietnamese and Thai favorites (no Lotus of Siam, please), so go ahead and share if you wish in the comments here. Otherwise, the banter this week is especially amusing and we hope you enjoy it all. Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Nov.16: Good Ol' Boyd
[Update 11/17: New link and show audio fixed -sf]

At 77, William S. Boyd could just sit back, count his money and let his children carry on his family’s casino and philanthropic legacies in Nevada. But for Boyd, retirement from running the company means being active in it in other ways, and he remains very much involved in the important decisions of Boyd Gaming. Mr. Boyd speaks to Steve this hour about halting construction of Echelon, making a play for the properties of bankrupt rival Station Casinos and old versus new Vegas.

In banter: Frank Caliendo opens, Steve bets on Cotto for a friend, WSOP ratings are flat, the Rio is NOT all suites, three popular attractions are now neighbors, crazy Bette fans attack and Jim Murren claims he listens to this show.

Links to stuff discussed:

Steve’s blog post and column on the Main Street Station walkabout
Frank Caliendo’s home page
The VegasHappensHere.Com explanation of how the MJ money was spent
Steve’s Bette Midler failure column and WSOP’s ratings drop
The new locations for the Gambler’s Book Shop and Pinball Hall of Fame
See the weird Aubrey O’Day YouTube rant after the first Peepshow performance
The VegasHappensHere.Com rant against the wrap on The Harmon
The first CityCenter pictorial on the blog
The latest from the R-J’s Howard Stutz on the Boyd-Station tussle
The Dave Berns chat on KNPR with Bob Arum about maybe-gay UFC

LVW Col: Of Zowie, Erich, Aubrey, Bob, Cinevegas + The Wayner

It was rough being away last week and watching all that news flying by with little time to blog. Then I was asked to try to make some sense of it all in my weekly LVW piece, and what resulted was this piece examining the scorecard for Vegas culture, such as it is, by the end of it all. Enjoy. -sf

A death, an end of an era...and Aubrey O'Day
By STEVE FRIESS

I’ve never been much of a Las Vegas nostalgic. I yawn as I listen to all the old-timers grouse about how great things were back then when murderers and thieves “ran” the town and when gambling was the extent of the city’s raison d’être.

So it was somehow fitting that I was away, in New York visiting editors and playing uncle to my niece, for this past week. Fitting, that is, because in the seven days that I was gone, throwback concepts attempted to reign, and “progress” as I define it for the city took a few serious blows.

I missed, for instance, what must have been a pretty disastrous opening night at the Monte Carlo for Zowie Bowie and its Vintage Vegas act. The preternaturally tanned singing duo are expert self-promoters, terrific singers and as media-savvy as anyone around, and yet even our most obsequious of entertainment scribes trashed them by saying they belong in a cabaret and not a major showroom. But it doesn’t really matter to me how they’re received; the idea here is that a major theater on the Strip is now given over to the alleged romance of Old Vegas. When it fails, I wonder, will anyone (else) suggest that maybe it wasn’t the execution that flopped, but the fact that people are bored with the effort to relive a bygone era?

There were three other news items that, to me, also represented steps backward in the cultural evolution of Las Vegas.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com

Take a GOOD look, Aubrey O'Day...

...cuz if ya keep this crapola up, this is the only sort of Peepshow that's gonna hire you. (I walked by that earlier tonight in New York and thought it would be funny, given the drama I'm missing back west. Something weird ALWAYS happens when I'm gone!)

If you haven't heard yet, O'Day -- whose claim to fame I still am unclear of -- called in sick on her second night as the singing lead of "Peepshow" at Planet Hollywood because someone in the audience took a photo of her topless and posted it online. Then she posted this bizarro YouTube clip...



...that defies logic and reason. And, Aubrey, trying to make sense of what you say is not being a hater. It's an earnest effort to figure out if you have any brains, is all.

In that vid, Ms. O'Day goes on about being insecure about her body. Yet she's the lead of a topless show in Las Vegas, a role that I'm pretty sure she consented to perform. Whatever might have been in the illicit photos -- and I honestly don't care enough to find them and see for myself -- had to have been what the audience saw at the show, so how exactly is she the new Erin Andrews?

Sure, nobody should've taken photos and posted them, but what exact damage was done? Daniel Radcliffe appeared in "Equus" and was not at all surprised when photos of [NSFW link ahead!!!] Harry Potter's magic wand ended up online. What century does this O'Day babe think she's living in? Even Patti LuPone coulda told her this was gonna happen. And then she slaps back and scores one for the female race by, uh, showing off her boobs on YouTube? (Aha! So NOW you're going to click on that video, is that how it is?)

Beyond that, her consternation over the predictable leakage of these photos was enough for her to skip a show?!? But my favorite part was what Richard Abowitz learned as he reported on the situation for his L.A. Times blog: Only two ticketholders asked for refunds. So what's worse, Aubrey, the fact that one audience member thought your goods were exciting enough to post online or the fact that 1,700 didn't care if you were there or not?

Finally, I just wonder. Is it just me or does this image of the clearly quite modest and insecure O'Day from her website...


...kinda remind you of...


...Lucy the Slut from Avenue Q?

OK, that qualifies me as a hater. Guilty as charged.

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