Is this regression?

The Golden Nugget announced today a multi-year deal with...Gordie Brown. The same Gordie Brown who appeared there regularly several years ago, then moved on to a showroom at the Venetian, then did some shows at the Planet Hollywood and now is on tour with Celine Dion.

Gordie's due to start a five-night-a-week gig at the GN in February with a four-piece band. They're even renaming the showroom for him.

Downtown Sights and Ruminations

I had to head downtown today to do an interview at the spankin' new and hyper-green Molasky Corporate Center, the state's first building to be certified LEED Gold. There were lots of interesting things about it, from the insulation made from old jeans to the hardwood flooring that comes from old phone poles to the fact that the parking garage floors were named "Conserve" and "Solar" and stuff like that.

My favorite thing, though, had nothing to do with the carbon footprint. It was this unusual bit of public art, a mammoth chess board that people can actually play on.


From the top floor, we could look down and see the mile-long train on the Union Pacific tracks of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Evidently, they're in town. I hate the circus. It made me sad to think that all those poor animals were idled in those train cars in 100+ heat and I couldn't do anything about it. Sad. Say what you will about Las Vegas, this is the city that proved that you make billions staging cruelty-free circuses starring - wait for it - humans!


And finally, a question: What the heck is up with this discoloration at the Golden Nugget?


Anyone know?

UPDATE, 4:05 pm PT: Justin McVay, the Golden Nugget's publicist, writes in that they're testing out different facade looks in trying to decide what look to go with for their new 500-room, $150m tower due to be finished in late 2009. The blue crane in the foreground of the photo is part of that. It's fascinating -- and surprising -- that they'd use the actual building to test out looks. That's a pretty big experiment, and even so I can't get my head around what it would look like writ large across the tower.

The Coolest Trailer I've Ever Seen

I've never seen a trailer for a book before. Ever. But check this out, for a book called "Double Or Nothing" by Tom Breitling, half of the Tim-and-Tom duo from the Golden Nugget.

OJ Room Rate Discount!!!

So congrats to the Palace Station and the Palms for opting not to exploit the OJ hysteria, but today the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas proved the whole mess to be an irresistible opportunity.

The court has scheduled the next hearings in the armed-robbery case for Nov. 8 and 9, so today we get a press release from the Nugget announcing that there are special media room rates starting at $79 for Thursday and $159 for that Friday for "members of the press covering these hearings." And there's more!

"Along with this special hotel room rate, the hotel will host a furnished media hospitality room which will offer office amenities such as complimentary internet access and fax, as well as refreshments such as coffee and chilled bottled water. This hospitality room will be available to media hotel guests, 24-hours-a-day."

How nice, huh? I don't know how you're supposed to prove you're a journalist when you reserve, so I imagine anyone who's in for those days can "mention this offer" at 1-800-634-3454, as the release states.

Tacky.

Friday At The Tank With Jamie

I'm working on a travel piece on animal attractions in Vegas and so I had to go to the Golden Nugget to try out The Tank, the $35 million pool with a 200,000-gallon shark-filled saltwater aquarium plopped in the middle of it (see the tube above Jamie's head to the right). This being Vegas, there's also a slide that hurtles you through the center of the aquarium. As usual, I dragged along Jamie, my almost-17-year-old Little Brother. (That's him above to the left. I'm the one to the right looking momentarily a lot younger than my almost-35 years.)

The slide is terrific, although the lines are probably quite long on the weekends, and the scenery is certainly a huge step up from the old Golden Nugget pool area that was actually shuttered for part of the year and turned into a makeshift poker room.

Good news is that, while the pool is intended for hotel guests, by law they must admit you if you say you're going to gamble at one of the three poolside tables. Don't know if that means you can bring along your kids, though. Also, local Nevadans are permitted in for free with a Nevada ID after 6 pm.

Coming Soon: Pete Rose

Just learned I'll be getting an interview with Pete Rose for one of my major clients, so that's pretty exciting. Also, don't forget, I've got a Steve Wynn chat in the can to roll out in the next few weeks. And Neil Sedaka's coming up in September as well.

Today, I'm off right now with my Little Brother (from Big Brothers/Big Sisters) to try out the new Golden Nugget pool with the sharks for a travel piece I'm doing on animal acts and exhibits in Vegas. Will hopefully have some fun pix to share when I get back.

Then it's off to Borders to pick up my held copy of Pete Rose's autobio, then to get a little haircut and then to go to PBS in Vegas at 6ish to appear on "Nevada Week in Review," a weekly local public affairs show. So if you're around your TV at about 7:30 p.m. tonight, watch me BS my way into chatter about some topics I'm smart on and others that I just pretend. Fun!