Steve Friess is a 2011-12 recipient of the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he will be studying the impact of the rapid expansion of Vegas-style gaming on Asia. He's a podcaster, author and Vegas-based freelance journalist who writes regularly for USA Today, The New York Times, Newsweek and many others. His column, "The Strip Sense" appears every Thursday in the Las Vegas Weekly. His books include "Gay Vegas" from Huntington Press and Knopf Mapguides' "Las Vegas." Friess co-hosts the weekly celebrity interview podcast The Strip Podcast "The Strip" with his husband, Miles Smith, the executive producer at KSNV-TV, Channel 3. For four years, Steve also co-hosted The Petcast with Las Vegas Sun education scribe Emily Richmond.
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The Podcast
Each week, we bring you news, conversations with Vegas notables, trivia and tourist tips on The Strip Podcast. Listen through this nifty player (above) or by subscribing in iTunes.
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We're back in the LVRocks.Com studio from noon to 2 p.m. PT on Saturday to record two new episodes of The Petcast followed by The Strip featuring interviews with Louie Anderson and "Wait Wait" host Peter Sagal.
The Petcast is first at noon with Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control Director Dianne Sauve to explain how a late-night pet dropout works and to relate heartbreaking and uplifting tales of a life in the animal control business. Our second show features Barbara Savidge, co-owner of Olive Green Goods For Modern Dogs eco-friendly pet-friendly items.
Also, my guest co-host for The Petcast this week will be Cindi Moon Reed, a Vegas Seven staffer who wrote a fantastic cover piece recently on the Bobby Berosini orangutan story that really "made" PETA. We'll discuss her reporting as well. Great stuff.
Then, of course, Miles and I are on from 1-2 p.m. We'll probably have time to play the Sagal interview during the live show and drop in the longer Louie Anderson conversation for the podcast edition.
As always, you can listen live at via LVRocks.Com and join the chat with fellow listeners. Or wait and grab the podcast version via iTunes or Zune or listen via that nifty "Listen Now" player on TheStripPodcast.Com or ThePetcast.Com. Your call.
OK. We're shifting the schedule, possibly permanently, to accommodate Miles' working a lot of weekends. So, starting tomorrow, The Strip is live at noon PT and The Petcast is live at 1 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com.
This week's guest on "The Strip" is two-time WSOP champ and "Rounders" star Johnny Chan, who had a remarkable run in this year's Main Event and finished up 159th out of 7,319. The legend has some tart words for the corporatization of poker, is dismissive of Phil Laak's recent 115-hour poker-playing stunt and fondly recalls his recently departed friend, Bob Stupak.
Join us live at LVRocks.Com to listen live, see us via webcam and join us in the chat. You can also listen via mobile device. Or you wait for the podcast version, of course, and subscribe via iTunes or Zune to The Petcast or to The Strip in iTunes or Zune.
I had said we might skip "The Strip" this time because Miles is away, but instead I've come up with a fun way to get through a week in which many of my efforts to set up interviews fell by the wayside.
Guest host Amy and I will do a new live show and play a classic interview that many of you have heard about but never actually heard: George Wallace! Yes! We'll banter about the week's doings and all that, but we'll also play the November 2005 interview in which Miles and I were treated spectacularly badly by the Flamingo comic.
SO... We're live on Saturday from 5-6 pm for The Strip after Emily and I do a pair of Petcasts from 4-5 p.m. Join us in chat and see us on webcam at LVRocks.Com or listen via a smart phone. Or wait for the podcast. Any which way, should be fun.
Yep, we're live today from 5-6 p.m. at LVRocks.Com as Donny Osmond returns to the show where in 2007 he first publicly announced his negotiations for a Vegas headliner gig. This time around, the topics include Gary Coleman, Justin Bieber, the Gores, Dancing With The Stars, depression and wearing a diaper -- err, a loincloth, on stage. And more.
Join Miles and guest-host Amy, who promises to wear shoes, as I'll be traveling back from California at showtime. They go on from 5-6 p.m. PT and you can hear them, see them (maybe) and chat with them at LVRocks.Com.
The Petcast will precede them from 4-5 p.m. PT with Emily and guest host John Katsilometes. I feel so replaceable!
Ex-Planet Ho resort owner Robert Earl is this week's guest on The Strip, talking about why he had to cede control of the resort to Harrah's, what he thinks of CityCenter and what his role in Vegas is now. PLUS, guest host David McKee of the Las Vegas Advisor's Stiffs & Georges blog will fill in for Miles, who has to work. I've consigned the task of drumming up a Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week to McKee, too.
Join us 5-6 p.m. PT at LVRocks.Com for to listen, watch via webcam and chat with other fans. The podcast edition, of course, usually posts for subscribers (it's free!) by the end of the weekend.
Also join us from 4-5 p.m. for two new episodes of The Petcast. This week, we've got Dr. Patricia McConnell, pet blogger/author and former co-host of NPR's "Calling All Pets" in the first half-hour and then Dr. Marlene Zuk, who researches animal behavior and was recently quoted in this New York Times Magazine piece on whether animals can be gay.
So chill with us from 4-6 pm PT tomorrow. It's fun and we enjoy the company.
Remember this? That cat needs you, whoever you are.
Four months ago, my "Petcast" co-host Emily Richmond noticed this cat hanging out around her house. She and her neighbor have now determined that this cat is homeless, that someone moved away and let her behind. They've been feeding her but they can't take her in. In Emily's case, she's allergic to cats. In the neighbor's case, she's got 3 territorial cats that wouldn't put up with it.
The NSPCA shelter is full. The Lied shelter will euthanize the cat. She's apparently very friendly and affectionate but is getting thinner and needs someplace to go. Miles and I are considering it but we have two very weird, moody dogs and we're really unsure whether they'd put up with it.
Yes, we are live today from 4-6 pm PT at LVRocks.Com recording all-new episodes of The Strip and The Petcast. Thing is, I'm still debating at this point which interview we're using this week for The Strip. Tune in, find out and hang out with the regular chat-room gang!
BUT... I can tell you that on "The Strip" we'll be discussing my visit to the Cirque du Soleil headquarters in Montreal and providing a preview of some of the news I learned there, I'll give some thoughts on "O", "Criss Angel Believe" and "Viva Elvis" from my on-going effort to revisit all Vegas Cirque and much more. Plus, there'll be a new trivia question, a new poll, listener feedback and, as always, the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week.
Join us at LVRocks.Com from 4-5 p.m. for two new episodes of "The Petcast" with Emily and me including a live interview with with the Animal Planet dude in the box with all those snakes. Then from 5-6 p.m. it's Miles and me.
I don't know why this image probably freaks out so many of you, Miles included. It's just a cute little Florida grey ratsnake, the first of two slitherers that Animal Planet herpetologist Donald Schultz handed me while I visited him inside the glass box he's living in until Jan. 26 for a Feb. 9 TV special called Venom in Vegas.
I went inside the box yesterday, when there were about 60 of the eventual 100 venomous and in some cases quite exotic snakes, for a very cheeky Sphere.Com piece that explains the point and some of the intricacies of the effort. Then I created two videos -- a short and a long version -- of the adventure. The shorter one (5 minutes) is on YouTube:
And the longer one, 16 minutes that include a snake sneaking into my pants and a look at Schultz's snake-bitten backhand, can be viewed by clicking below or can be downloaded and watched at your leisure by right-clicking here.
Folks can watch via Animal Planet's live -- albeit slightly intermittent, partly due to inclement weather -- webcam or come by to stare in person across the street from Caesars Palace. The box stands in the alley between O'Sheas and the Flamingo where Harrah's plans to build a bar street someday. They might consider asking this guy to come back as a permanent attraction for that.
Here's what I looked like on the webcam yesterday:
I've probably lost half of you by now because of everyone's fear of snakes. It's so odd because I've never minded them. They don't especially interest me, but they also don't gross me out. Then again, I have phobias of my own, too; I turn down assignments every year from travel editors wanting me to evaluate Vegas' thrill rides. I hate roller coasters, so I don't think I'm the guy to grade them.
Anyhow, I had no second-thoughts about signing the legal release that included this terrifying passage, bold-face and capital letters intact from the form itself:
I hereby acknowledge that my involvement with the Program includes my presence around, and possibly at close distances to, multiple snakes that have the capability to bite, envenomate, harm and even kill me and that snakes can and will attack for no reason. I acknowledge that my presence around these animals and my participation in the Program INVOLVES INHERENTLY EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, HIGH- RISK ACTIVITIES WHICH MAY RESULT IN MY DISFIGUREMENT, DISMEMBERMENT, ILLNESS, SERIOUS INJURY, EMOTIONAL TRAUMA, PROPERTY LOSS AND/OR POSSIBLE DEATH and no amount of planning and preparation can eliminate the risks inherent or otherwise in these activities. I understand that EVERY DECISION I MAKE WILL BE MY OWN DECISION and I hereby acknowledge and agree that my participation in the Program and undertaking of these dangerous activities is in my sole and absolute discretion and neither Producer nor O'Sheas is requiring me to do so and that I VOLUNTARILY AND FREELY ACCEPT AND ASSUME ALL RISKS, HAZARDS AND DANGERS THAT I MAY ENCOUNTER OR BE EXPOSED TO ASSOCIATED WITH MY PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM AND UNDERTAKING OF THESE DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES and that I do so with full knowledge, appreciation and understanding of the dangers and personal risks involved and I understand and acknowledge that the waivers, releases and indemnities in this Release expressly apply to these risks, hazards and dangers.
Yeah, whatever. Here's what the box looks like from the outside...
...and an exclusive (ooh, how exciting!) look at Schultz's opaque bathroom:
Here's what his bed looks like...
...and, as noted in the Sphere.Com piece, he's using some of his time to get into "Lost" and to, eerily, read the memoir about the late Animal Planet adventurer Steve Irwin written by his widow.
One thing that's interesting is that the room -- 320 square feet with a killer Strip view -- has all these snakes but you don't see them as much as you'd think. They hide in the (silk) plants or under the Ikea-like furnishings. See?
But Schultz, who is milking the venom and answering the public's questions via a speaker set up at appointed times, lures them out from time to time.
Oh, and I've included this last image...
...for a reason. Internet rumors have it that the box is being kept cold to subdue the snakes and keep Schultz safer. Not so. The room was really warm and has spaceheaters all over the place to keep the temperatures up. This is a stunt, to be sure and as Schultz readily admits, but he's doing it for real.
P.S. Thanks to Thee Merry Widows for "Snakebite Kind of Love" for the videos. It was used free from the Podsafe Music Network but now I can't get it out of my head. Check out their site and other music at MerryWidowsMusic.Com.
Step away from the leftover Christmas ham -- or bring some with you, we don't actually mind -- and listen live/join in chat 4-6p PT at LVRocks.Com as "The Petcast" counts down the top pet-related tales (get it? tales?) of 2009 and then "The Strip" holds JUNIOR DAY featuring interviews with Louis Prima Jr. and Sandy Hackett.
The schedule:
4-430p: The Petcast 2009 Countdown 430-515p: Play Sandy Hackett interview 5:15-6p: Miles and I do the normal parts of the show including a review of the Aria buffet, thoughts on the Jenny Holzer installation and more.
We're doing an hour of Petcasts from 4-5 p.m. followed by an hour of The Strip from 5-6 p.m. PT. Join us at LVRocks.Com to listen live and chill in the chat room with fellow fans. The scoop:
* On The Petcast, Emily and I are scheduled to conduct interviews about a California college program that uses pets for finals-week stress reduction and about the happy, short and brutish life of pet hamsters.
* On The Strip, I'm fairly certain we'll be playing my Wolfgang Puck interview. Amy guest-hosts because Miles is still away. She attended the Aria opening with me, so we'll rap quite a bit about that, obviously.
Join us 4-5 pm PT for two live episodes of "The Petcast" and then from 5-6 pm PT for "The Strip" featuring my interview with new Vegas headliner Frank Caliendo. Come to LVRocks.Com and listen via your smart phone and chat in the chatroom with other listeners! See ya there!
Sorry for the late notice, but we'll be live from 4-6 pm at LVRocks.Com doing an hour of The Petcast and then an hour of The Strip. Our guest on the Petcast is Beverly Washburn, the actress who played the little girl in "Old Yeller" way back when, talking about the iconic animal flick. On the Strip, we'll be playing my conversation with Bill Boyd, executive chairman of Boyd Gaming, in which he talks about the Mob, his regrets about Echelon and making a play for Station properties.
Join us in the chat and/or listen live at LVRocks.Com. You can listen through most smart phones even if you're not at your computer via the site! Or wait for the podcasts, which will be available soon.
We didn't have a new episode of The Strip this past week because there was no engineer available at LVRocks.Com on Saturday which turned out to be just as well given that I had a mammoth neckache and was given some remarkable meds. But I did sober up long enough to catch up on posting both the latest of The Strip and of my other program, The Petcast.
Firstly, I encourage you to watch our Special Petcast Video show from the SuperZoo convention this fall at Mandalay Bay. We provided video commentary, interviews and product demonstrations. That included Pet Top, the Amazing Treat Machine, Pink Poodle Gourmet & Designs, The Port-A-Poo, the remote-control cat toy, the crazy creative grooming competition and much more! Don't miss the montage of fun photos at the end, too!
I also posted Episode No. 216 in which Emily and I discuss the problems of wild pets being released into the Everglades with Jenny Novak Tinnell of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.You can subscribe to The Petcast via iTunes, of course, to get all the episodes when they're released.
Oh, and I also managed to get "The Strip" updated, too. You can subscribe to that in iTunes, too, or in Zune. So here's that one:
Four years ago, a San Francisco chef took a gamble and opened up his San Francisco kitchen to the first challenge of a new Bravo TV show called “Top Chef.” At the time, Hubert Keller came across as tough and grouchy but the show was a hit and his Fleur de Lys in California became a place of intrigue for its fans. Fast forward to this year when warmer, cuddlier Keller appeared first on Top Chef Masters and then in an episode of the current, Las Vegas-set season of the show. Business at Fleur de Lys – long an underperformer at Mandalay Bay – is booming. Keller speaks this hour about that, about what it smelled like to grow up above his family’s bakery in Alsace, France, and about how a Frenchman became one of the biggest things ever in the burger cuisine. Plus, as usual, Steve asked Keller about his food guilty pleasures. In Banter: Ticket scalping issues, Barry Manilow, the Podcast-a-Palooza, Harrah's dumb iPhone app, DB leaves Wynn, DB opening at Sands in Singapore and who is the Maori Hi Five?
We're starting our new recording schedule at LVRocks.Com on Saturday afternoon, doing an hour of The Petcast and then an hour of The Strip, the latter with the much-awaited return of Miles to the co-host chair for the first time since the middle of the summer.
Join us at LVRocks.Com from 4-6 pm PT to listen live, chat with fellow listeners and see us via the live studio cam. Or wait for the podcast versions. Either way's cool.
For The Petcast, we'll be recording two shows, the first with an expert from Florida who is administering an amnesty program for people needing to abandon exotic pets like snakes that otherwise create eco-system problems in the Everglades and elsewhere. The second show's guest is Cat Opson, the $2,000 winner of the SuperZoo creative grooming contest that I covered in this PawNation.Com piece. Check out the fiery comments Cat left battling back against folks who called her grooming effort a form of animal abuse.
For The Strip, it's looking like we'll be using my conversations with Anthony Zuiker and Marg Helgenberger from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation at the opening of the CSI attraction at MGM Grand a few weeks back. And there'll be LOTS of banter to catch up on.
It's official! We're moving the live recording for "The Strip" to Saturday evening starting this weekend. Also, Emily and I will be recording "The Petcast" for one hour before that. We're hoping to move to Sunday evenings whenever LVRocks.Com gets a Sunday engineer, but for now we'll have a 4 p.m.-6p.m. PT block for two Petcasts and a Strip.
It'll be interesting to see if this shrinks our chat room attendance or maybe there were people, especially in other time zones, for whom mid-week evenings were unappealing. We shall see!
See you there? Reminder and more info on the upcoming shows will be posted on Fridays. The live shows are streamed at LVRocks.Com, where there's also a chat room and a live studio cam.
Our studio is getting evicted! Ack! I can't get into the behind-the-scenes stuff, but our broadcasting home for the past 3.5 years is moving...and we don't know to where or when. That means we're not recording The Petcast this weekend and probably not doing The Strip either on Tuesday night. LVRocks.Com is on the hunt for some inexpensive office space to reconstitute, though, so if you have any suggestions, e-mail me at TheStripPodcast(at)aol.com.
Emily and I are recording three new Petcasts on Saturday, so listen live and join us in the chat at LVRocks.Com. Here's the guest line-up:
* 10 a.m.: Victoria Stilwell, host of "It's Me Or The Dog" and "Greatest American Dog" judge. * 10:30 a.m.: Kyenan Kum, KoreanAnimals.Org * 11 a.m.: Jeanie Vaughan, founder of Turtle Dreams
See you there! Or wait for the shows to appear in the RSS feed!
We're recording two episodes of "The Petcast" from 10-11 a.m. PT and then, at about 11 a.m., we're turning over the LVRocks.Com airwaves (airwaves???) to the luscious ladies of "Grits To Glitz" for their very special 100th episode! Amy and Bay will chat live online, so come to the chat room to join us!
As for "The Petcast," we'll chat with prolific pet author Amy Shojai("Chicken Soup For The Dog/Cat Lover's Soul," "Petiquette") about her books and a recent Cat Fiction Writers' Conference she attended. Then Jo Sullivan of the ASPCA will offer some pet-related gift ideas for the holidays.
Join us for all of that at LVROCKS.Com. Or wait for each show to post their podcasts, of course.
I'm sure by the time you read this, the moment will have passed. But right now, "Gay Vegas" is ranked #1 on Amazon.Com in the category of gay/lesbian travel, #2 in Las Vegas travel guides and #11 in all gay and lesbian nonfiction. Also, the book is at #24,593 overall. To understand the tremendous impact of Tammy Audi's Wall Street Journal piece that referenced the book, I was at #600,000ish on Friday morning. Wild. Keep it going. Buy yours now.
Now, how do we get WSJ to write about "The Strip" and "The Petcast"?
We've got a terrific lineup for tomorrow's recordings of The Petcast:
* 9:10 am: Meg Frost, founder of CuteOverload.Com. * 9:40 am: (tentative) Doug Duke of the NSPCA on why selling pets at silent auctions is wrong * 10:10 am: Dr. George Fahey, an Illinois-based animal obesity researcher * 10:45 am: Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, a surgeon calling in from the U.K. who fitted a dog with a prosthetic paw.
Plus, lots of chit-chat about the pet-news of the day, including the Michael Vick dogfighting case and more.
Below are links to the final episodes and last week of special editions of The Strip Podcast. Right-click on any of these to save and hear at your leisure. Otherwise, click on them and they should play. Enjoy, and thanks for the wonderful years.
Aug. 27: Steve's Valedictory Speech To Lambda
Aug. 26: Steve on LVW Radio Mag Regarding Jockey Club Aug. 24: Steve on KNPR on the future of Vegas newspapers
Aug.23: Steve's KNPR Exit Interview
Aug. 22: Steve on KNPR on Eureka, NV
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We're back in the LVRocks.Com studio from noon to 2 p.m. PT on Saturday to record two new episodes of The Petcast followed by The Strip featuring interviews with Louie Anderson and "Wait Wait" host Peter Sagal.
Also, my guest co-host for The Petcast this week will be Cindi Moon Reed, a Vegas Seven staffer who wrote a fantastic cover piece recently on the Bobby Berosini orangutan story that really "made" PETA. We'll discuss her reporting as well. Great stuff.
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