The Show is UP: Happy 2009!

Happy New Year, everyone. Enjoy! Hear the show by clicking on the date or right-click to download it and listen whenever you want. Or subscribe via iTunes here or via Zune here.

Jan. 1: ...And A Wynning New Year

We’ve walked through Encore with him and chatted him up about everything from that damaged Picasso to the exact curvature of his resort towers. So what’s left to talk about with Steve Wynn? Well, it’s Steve Wynn, so there’s always more. We finish playing our pre-Encore interview tonight with discussion of Wynn’s athletic prowess, his concerns about the economy and a little Gandhi chit-chat, too.

In Banter: Switch at Encore, the view from Capital Grille, Criss Angel on Larry King, Danny Gans’ Encore poster and free coffee at Silverton.

Links:

Find the site for Bagelmania here
Heidi Knapp Rinella’s Top 10 restaurants reviewed in 2008 is here
See the Danny Gans poster at Encore here
Read more about the Silverton’s Starbucks offering and other casino freebies here

Something new among the old

I just finished leafing through today's last-weekend-of-the-year 2008 news rehashes in the Review-Journal and Sun. Oddly, the most notable thing I spotted was this advertisement for the Silverton Hotel-Casino a little ways south on Las Vegas Boulevard:


I've never heard of Vegas casinos offering anything other than free cocktails to players. Starbucks coffee sounds like a smart move. I do recall popping in at the Fernley Nugget in Fernley, Nev., recently to check out the state's first casino to open as a non-smoking joint and noting they had a self-service soft-drink fountain. I wonder which is more effective in parting you from your money, free alcohol or free caffeine? Red Bull and vodka anyone?

On a related front, the papers were largely reiterations of old news and, given this annus horribilis, not terribly happy news at that. But in and among all that, the Las Vegas Sun's Charlotte Hsu provided a must-read, a in-depth, enlightening and wonderfully long piece on a local Iraq veteran's war experiences. Plus, of the year-end fodder, Howard Stutz gave a compact recounting of Sheldon Adelson's miserable year that reminded me that his failures were not exclusively about his company's woes. And I agree almost entirely (I still don't get the Cher thing) with Mike Weatherford's Top 10 shows of 2008, especially since he allows us to swap out "Love" or "Ka" if we're not enamored of "O," as I am not.

If I have a bone to pick this morning -- and there ought to be one, right? -- it's with R-J food critic Heidi Knapp Rinella listing the Capital Grille at the Fashion Show Mall as her sixth favorite of the eateries she reviewed in Vegas this year, exhorting us to "take in the unmatched view."

Unmatched view?!?!? Perhaps, if by "unmatched view" she meant of empty lots, stalled construction projects, a neon McD's sign and, off in the tantalizing horizon, the Naked City. (I'm feeling a future Stripper Poll coming on here, best restaurants with views. I wouldn't have even thought of putting CG on that list, though.) I like the Vegas Capital Grille, actually. But when I'm there, the view is the one thing that always seems unfortunate; if only they had gotten a perch facing south, the big windows and pretty architecture would be put to good use.

Finally, I'll be heading out shortly to pick up the Sunday New York Times. The NYT Sunday Magazine on the last weekend of each year is my favorite, a series of obituaries of highly influential individuals who died this year that always includes several non-famous names you never heard of but whose lives altered the culture in some way. One year, I discovered that the guy who invented the high-five was gay. Can't wait to find out what I didn't know this year.

Umm, Really?

I got a peculiar press release just now proclaiming that Zagat has named the gargantuan Bass Pro Shops at the Silverton as the No. 1 men's and womens' wear store in Las Vegas in its 2008 guide.

Really? I know Zagat's method is democratic, but does that even make any sense? This place is dominated by a very specific type of merchandise and I don't think people even THINK of it as a place to go buy clothing.

According to the release, Zagat "notes the store's vast collection of hunting, camping and golfing equipment as well as full lines of outerwear for inclement weather."

Huh? That doesn't sound like a clothing shop to me, at least not in the way that learning some place was named best women's and men's wear shop in the city would imply to me. It also doesn't sound particularly useful to most people either living or visiting Las Vegas, where inclement weather means it's drizzling.

Don't get me wrong. It's a cool store. I'm just baffled by this categorization. Does it compete in this category with Nordstrom, Barney's and Saks? Wouldn't this be like giving this honor to Bed, Bath and Beyond for their apron selection?

Stop the presses: The Silverton Put Up A Sign!

This just struck us as a bit sad. The Silverton, which is a quite respectable little hunting-lodge-themed joint with an excellent cafe and a ginormous Bass Pro Shop a couple miles south of the Strip, added a huge new marquee. Fine. That's nice. Probably a good business idea.

This excerpt of a press release, though, seemed a little desperate:

On Thursday, March 22, the Silverton Casino Lodge will install a huge 54' sign on the west corner of Dean Martin and Blue Diamond. This new sign is sure to draw attention to the booming locals casino.

The Silverton Casino Lodge would like to extend an invitation for any media interested to come out and take as many photos and as much video of the sign as they would like.

We've been looking all over and it seems that "as many photos and as much video" has amounted to exactly nothing. OK, it's hard to tell at this late date whether any of the TV stations pandered. But we couldn't find a single photo anywhere on ye olde Internet of this sign, not even on the Silverton's own website, and it does appear that this momentous event seemed to be covered by, uh, nobody.