Our New Year's Eve In Las Vegas On TV

So here's the montage version of the Party at the Panorama that KSNV Channel 3 anchor Marie Mortera staged featuring me, Marie's boyfriend and Panorama resident Amy Turner, whom many of you know as fill-in guest host on The Strip and co-host of the GritstoGlitz podcast. (Ladies, surely this experience merits a new edition of your show?!?)

At the end of the video is a photo montage from behind the scenes and of the fireworks from the Panorama deck.

A few things to note:

* I didn't record the closings/goodbyes because the show went over time and Cox Cable is simply incapable of knowing when shows actually end. But thanks to Norm Kresge of Las Vegas for helping me figure out how to get it from DVR to DVD to YouTube!

* KSNV won the night! Their 11:45-midnight ratings were stratospheric. I'm quite proud not just because I got to participate but because it was, of course, Miles who managed this coverage and ran the show from the News 3 ranch. I don't know what the other channels were doing, but it's clear that News 3 has regained its mojo after losing to KLAS a couple years running. Yay! Miles hates it when I toot his horn, but toot toot and deal with it, Smitty.

* We did the party in the Panorama unit I own. Marie misspoke about Amy owning it, but Amy has been living there for about six months.

* KSNV arranged the food from LBS Burger and Hachi at Red Rock Resort and the Champagne provided by Southern Wine & Spirits. I was not involved in those arrangements. It was all quite lovely, though!

* Happy New Year, Everyone. If you don't mind, here's the most awesome picture taken so far in 2011:


As you can see, Aces (left) is already an integrated part of the family with Black and Jack. Hooray!

The Moron Strikes Again

There is a fellow in Las Vegas who fancies himself a journalist named Michael Politz who runs a trade magazine for the food and beverage industry, Las Vegas Food & Beverage. Yeah, that's him looking awful silly to your right. He traffics in rumor, occasionally getting one right, and he's has made a zillion enemies in Vegas not by being hard-hitting or overly fair but by playing favorites and frequently making an ass out of himself in public.

Each week, he publishes a column called The Vegas Eye in which he reports, re-reports and speculates on all manner of Vegas club and food scene happenings, sightings, etc. He desperately wanted to get onto the Party At The Palms With Perez symposium on celebrity journalism that we at the "The Strip" podcast organized at the Palms' ghostbar in January that included Perez Hilton, Norm Clarke, Robin Leach and Kate Bennett, but some of the other panelists refused to appear if he was going to be involved. Swell guy.

Today, Mr. Politz wrote a long paragraph about my coverage of Las Vegas in the current Conde Nast Traveler, which features the vaunted Hot List. That is, a worldwide listing and write-up of the best of the prior year's new restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and spas.

The operative word there is "new." Altogether now: New. We spotlighted out of Vegas in this year's edition Nove, Rao's and Guy Savoy for restaurants; the spas at Caesars and Red Rock; the Playboy Club/Moon bar for nightclubs; and the Red Rock Resort and Casino for hotels.

Politz's critique is the same as it was last year, based on a persistent inability to comprehend that this list is not a citywide verdict but only a commentary on this particular year's best of the newest:

"It's a seemingly odd bunch with some glaring omissions and somehow only touches three properties in the entire city. Oh well, perhaps the editorial and advertising departments are taking their lunch a little too closely together. ... While we appreciate the attention the magazine is bringing to Las Vegas, we just ask them to widen their scope next time around."

While I can -- and have -- argued for the inclusion of more new restaurants, the fact that Vegas got three when a town like Chicago only got two and the gastronomic Mecca of San Francisco got four out of the total of 95 worldwide is some evidence that my effort to represent this city's amazing food scene is starting to pay off. It was actually more of a challenge the year before because Wynn Las Vegas had just opened and I could have done four on their restaurants alone but had to be very selective in order to give Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand his props, too.

Anyhow, the point of this rant is that I explained that to Politz last year when he made similar snarks. So this year, there's no excuse. He's just willfully ignorant. And that drives me bananas.

By the way, if you want to hear the audio from the superb panel discussion that Politz was not involved with and therefore chose not to cover, click here or save it to your computer by right-clicking here.