Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My last regular LVW Col: Leave Barney Alone!

Here we go, folks. I've got a whole package planned next week, but this is the last regular edition of The Strip Sense, unless the LVW repurposes the column's name for someone else. I kinda hope they don't since Miles came up with it, but it's their call. Either way, this is my final entry. Enjoy. -sf

Leave Barney Alone!
The county's attempt to control those in costumes is a waste of time

By STEVE FRIESS


It is something like 156 degrees outside, and I stand at Flamingo and the Strip begging. “Please,” I plead with Luigi, Barney and Mr. Stormtrooper. “I really need your names for my column. It’s a journalism thing.” And yet, as if they’re Iranian dissidents, Mafia informants or underlings of Sheldon Adelson, they refuse to tell me who they are. The fear is palpable.

“You gonna to get us in trouble,” the big purple dinosaur says with more broken English and less gay giggle than I recall from babysitting my sisters’ kids. “Leave us alone.”

I’d love to, but local politicians have in their sights the poor souls who dress up as fictional characters and take photos with tourists for tips. “We can’t just sit back and allow something like this to happen without addressing it,” said Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly at the August 2 meeting.

Actually, sir, you can.

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Blooper Show is FINALLY Up!

Our blooper episode, recorded on 8/14, turned out to be a blooper in and of itself. I forgot to set GarageBand to record the feed from the mixer, so instead we recorded what the Mac's mike heard. It was a terrible mess and a huge loss because the original version was so much fun. But frequent guest co-host Amy came back on Saturday, 8/20 with another pizza and we re-did it with updated Vegas news and no chat room. This means the chat room folks haven't heard this version, either, which is unusual. Anyhow, enjoy! I'll post whenever I know when we're doing another show, but the grand finale episode will definitely by Sunday, Sept. 4, from Ann Arbor. Also, there will be MANY specials and extras coming in the podcast feed over the next week, so subscribe via iTunes. I won't be announcing them here. -sf

Aug. 20: BLOOPERPALOOZA!
Extra: More bloopers that didn't make it in the main show


Episode Guide:
Open & Banter: Start to 36ish
Intro/End-Show Bloopers : 36:45-44ish
Wordplay Bloopers: 44:30ish-50ish
Banter/Midshow Bloopers: 50:50-1:07ish
Trivia/Poll/Feedback: 1:07ish-1:20ish
Interview-related Bloopers: 1:20:35-1:31ish
Cursing Bloopers: 1:31:20-1:35ish
Miles' Voices Bloopers: 1:35:30-1:40ish
TSTToTW: 1:40ish-end
Something More: 1:53-end

As faithful listeners know, this podcast is edited. We appreciate being independent, but we don’t believe that independent means we should be careless and sloppy. So Steve goes through every week and cleans it all up so you don’t have to waste your time hearing long pauses and unnecessary or irrelevant banter. Also, there’s a whole culture that’s built up around the chat room and we interact with those out there in ways that the podcast listener wouldn’t follow. So, anyhow, each year we have created a Bloopers Episode. Hear us curse, bicker and ponder deep but Vegas-irrelevant thoughts. It's fun. You'll laugh. Mostly.

In Banter, we mulled our encounter with Mrs. Wynn in Sun Valley, talked about the de-Elvising at Aria and the likely implosion of The Harmon, we explained our strategy for packing and moving and much more. Near the end, we also discuss Steve's bingo adventure.

Links to stuff discussed:

What our ReLo Cubes look like, from Upack.Com
Aria is De-Elvising and removed the ugly wrap
Links (when available) to the Eureka Flickr Slideshow, The Daily article, the KNPR segment and the LV Weekly column
The site for Tanked
Steve's Las Vegas Weekly cover story on the Jockey Club
MGM Resorts wants to implode The Harmon, according to the WSJ
360Vegas Podcast is worth a try
Pix one, two and three of Steve’s Bingo adventure at Sunset Station