We're recording three new PETCASTs from 10-11:30 a.m. PT on Saturday! Come on down to the LVRocks.Com chat room and listen live.
This week we're answering listener questions and a whole lot more! Yay!
Friday, December 28, 2007
People Magazine's Smelly Question
I was struck at how strange this is and I'm wondering if I'm alone.
People Magazine's Managing Editor Larry Hackett and Washington correspondent Sandra Sobieraj Westfall had an interview with President and Mrs. Bush. They published part of it in the magazine this week, a benign Q-and-A that included just 15 extremely noncontroversial questions -- some submitted by readers -- published in a warm-fuzzy four-page spread. The stuff in the magazine was all fluff, chatter about Jenna Bush's upcoming wedding and the state of the First Marriage. I didn't really expect much more because it's People Magazine and, also, it probably would be boring to read his rote answers to the Iraq War and all that.
But tell me this isn't unsettling:
PEOPLE: Mrs. Bush, Julie Cregger, from Keymar, Md., writes, "My boyfriend was a Marine at Camp David and always said how nice you smell."
Mrs Bush: Oh really? That was so sweet.
OK. Umm. (A) That's not sweet, it's a disgusting and weird. And (B) That's the best People could come up with, a reader whose boyfriend is a straight-in-the-military stalker?
And here's the best part. Was Mr. Bush creeped out? Did he order the Secret Service to find out who Julie Cregger's stud muffin is and why he's been smelling up the First Lady? No! Here's what he said after Mrs. Bush seemed flattered:
The President: Obviously he didn't work in the gym.
Holy mother of GOD! What is wrong with these people? And, with no due respect, what if he DOES work in the gym? Then Julie Cregger's boyfriend thinks Laura Bush's sweat is HOT. Mmmm.
I'd love to point you to this interview, but for some reason, it's not anywhere to be found on the People website. I did find last year's Presidential chat, which was a lot better. (Less freaky readers asked hard questions about why the president isn't pressing his own daughters to fight in his unwinnable war and wondering how an anti-gay president can be so respectful and loving towards Dick Cheney's then-preggers lesbo daughter while giving the rest of us same-sex-lovers the wrong sort of shaft.)
Beyond the fact that the Q-and-A isn't online, there's also no Web extras from this exclusive visit with the First Couple at Camp David. Did they really only give them 15 questions? There's a photo in the magazine of Hackett and Westfall with the Bushes hanging out on couches. Both have recorders on the coffee table. Why don't we get to hear a podcast of the conversation? And, by the way, Mr. Hackett, if you go to interview the President of the United States, you wear a frigging tie.
People Magazine's Managing Editor Larry Hackett and Washington correspondent Sandra Sobieraj Westfall had an interview with President and Mrs. Bush. They published part of it in the magazine this week, a benign Q-and-A that included just 15 extremely noncontroversial questions -- some submitted by readers -- published in a warm-fuzzy four-page spread. The stuff in the magazine was all fluff, chatter about Jenna Bush's upcoming wedding and the state of the First Marriage. I didn't really expect much more because it's People Magazine and, also, it probably would be boring to read his rote answers to the Iraq War and all that.
But tell me this isn't unsettling:
PEOPLE: Mrs. Bush, Julie Cregger, from Keymar, Md., writes, "My boyfriend was a Marine at Camp David and always said how nice you smell."
Mrs Bush: Oh really? That was so sweet.
OK. Umm. (A) That's not sweet, it's a disgusting and weird. And (B) That's the best People could come up with, a reader whose boyfriend is a straight-in-the-military stalker?
And here's the best part. Was Mr. Bush creeped out? Did he order the Secret Service to find out who Julie Cregger's stud muffin is and why he's been smelling up the First Lady? No! Here's what he said after Mrs. Bush seemed flattered:
The President: Obviously he didn't work in the gym.
Holy mother of GOD! What is wrong with these people? And, with no due respect, what if he DOES work in the gym? Then Julie Cregger's boyfriend thinks Laura Bush's sweat is HOT. Mmmm.
I'd love to point you to this interview, but for some reason, it's not anywhere to be found on the People website. I did find last year's Presidential chat, which was a lot better. (Less freaky readers asked hard questions about why the president isn't pressing his own daughters to fight in his unwinnable war and wondering how an anti-gay president can be so respectful and loving towards Dick Cheney's then-preggers lesbo daughter while giving the rest of us same-sex-lovers the wrong sort of shaft.)
Beyond the fact that the Q-and-A isn't online, there's also no Web extras from this exclusive visit with the First Couple at Camp David. Did they really only give them 15 questions? There's a photo in the magazine of Hackett and Westfall with the Bushes hanging out on couches. Both have recorders on the coffee table. Why don't we get to hear a podcast of the conversation? And, by the way, Mr. Hackett, if you go to interview the President of the United States, you wear a frigging tie.
The Palazzo's Extremely Soft Opening
I knew the Palazzo was still not quite ready, and it was reported first at RateVegas.Com that the 12/28 (today) date for at least taking guests was delayed. But I was still stunned when I took a gander over there to see what there might be to see (and place $40 on the Giants to cover the points versus the Pats tomorrow.) Above is a shot of the hallway from the Venetian's dining row that would lead into the Palazzo -- curtained off. I kindly asked the security dude if I could peek behind the curtain, and I saw, as you see below, that they're still doing basic stuff like painting and tending to wiring. Indeed, the reason this is so dim is because, it seems, the lights aren't on. Also, considering that they expected to be somewhat open by now, why no maps in the Venetian that include the Palazzo?
The R-J's Arnold M. Knightly reports today that the company, stuck waiting on county permits, now says they hope to have "some parts" of the property open before the official Jan. 17 debut, but what I don't quite fathom is, Why? They've already missed the New Year's bonanza. Is it really that valuable to them to get a couple of rooms occupied? And what would the experience be for the guests -- their FIRST guests -- if they're stepping over ladders and breathing sawdust?I wondered what it looked like outside and I caught this construction dude on his laptop...
The Barney's sign looks great and hopefully they'll be rid of the portapotties before opening day...
But mostly, how irksome it is to try to walk by the project. I stood for 10 minutes in the chilly weather because a pickup truck needed to be escorted from the construction site to the Strip.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Strip is LIVE tonight @ 7:05 pm PT w/ Bette!
Join us for part one of our chat with the brilliant Bette Midler and a whole lot more tonight at LVROCKS.Com. Come on down at about 7 pm PT and enter the chat room for the final show of 2007, not to mention great company!Otherwise, wait till Thursday and this week's podcast!
Re-Vote in Top 10 Moments Poll!
There were a clear dozen moments that were atop the heap for the Best Moments of "The Strip" in 2007, so we've reset the voting and you all get just FIVE (5) votes. Choose well. The poll is to your right! You have until 1/1. Results on the live show on 1/2, posted as a podcast on 1/3.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Is MIX lesbolicious and I missed it?
It didn't take long to find something to blog about once I touched back down in Vegas. Waiting for our bags to arrive, I spotted this ad below for MIX atop THEHotel at Mandalay Bay.
It's really a fascinating approach. First of all, the use of the word "liberal" is politically provocative and goes in a direction that Vegas entities rarely go. Vegas, as we all know, is where lots of conservative and/or buttoned-up people come and do things they wouldn't do and/or would disapprove of back home. Also, stuff that would probably turn them off of a political candidate if they knew they'd done it. (Think about how viable a city council candidate in Dubuque would be if it turned out he was visiting strip clubs in Vegas, for instance.) The point is, Vegas is a place that gives conservative fly-over-nation hypocrites the chance to be hypocrites. Being here is a suspension of the insincere morals that inform their politics. So I wonder if many would actually want it literally spelled out for them that their behavior is LIBERAL.
But beyond that word -- for which there are many synonyms that could have just as easily gotten the idea across to the advertising audience -- is the whole motif of this ad. There are two hot babes bosom-to-bosom on the right. If you can't see it, take my word for it -- their tits are pressed up against one another. And then there are the three men on the left, strategically racially diverse, looking over with varying degrees of interest.
Wow. That's quite an ad, no? Almost enough to make you wonder if it's a dyke bar to which men are invited to gawk.
And just a P.S. that has nothing to do with this: When exactly did McCarran give up altogether checking to see whose baggage was whose? The metal rails and the entire pretense, never all that serious to begin with, was gone. It used to be one of the few airports I flew to that actually seemed concerned about making sure people didn't steal luggage. I wonder why any thief would bother robbing houses or people when they can just walk off with mystery packages at the airport whenever they want.
It's really a fascinating approach. First of all, the use of the word "liberal" is politically provocative and goes in a direction that Vegas entities rarely go. Vegas, as we all know, is where lots of conservative and/or buttoned-up people come and do things they wouldn't do and/or would disapprove of back home. Also, stuff that would probably turn them off of a political candidate if they knew they'd done it. (Think about how viable a city council candidate in Dubuque would be if it turned out he was visiting strip clubs in Vegas, for instance.) The point is, Vegas is a place that gives conservative fly-over-nation hypocrites the chance to be hypocrites. Being here is a suspension of the insincere morals that inform their politics. So I wonder if many would actually want it literally spelled out for them that their behavior is LIBERAL.
But beyond that word -- for which there are many synonyms that could have just as easily gotten the idea across to the advertising audience -- is the whole motif of this ad. There are two hot babes bosom-to-bosom on the right. If you can't see it, take my word for it -- their tits are pressed up against one another. And then there are the three men on the left, strategically racially diverse, looking over with varying degrees of interest.
Wow. That's quite an ad, no? Almost enough to make you wonder if it's a dyke bar to which men are invited to gawk.
And just a P.S. that has nothing to do with this: When exactly did McCarran give up altogether checking to see whose baggage was whose? The metal rails and the entire pretense, never all that serious to begin with, was gone. It used to be one of the few airports I flew to that actually seemed concerned about making sure people didn't steal luggage. I wonder why any thief would bother robbing houses or people when they can just walk off with mystery packages at the airport whenever they want.
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