This Week's LVW Col: President's Pianist

Here's this week's Las Vegas Weekly column. My full interview with David Osborne is found here. Thanks to the Osbornes for this image below. -sf

The Presidential Pianist
David Osborne keeps the politics to a minimum as he keeps Commanders in Chief entertained

By STEVE FRIESS

David Osborne needed to postpone the conversation for a half hour or so.

"The White House is calling," he says with a trace of giddiness in his voice. "They want to know if I want to come meet the president tomorrow morning at Green Valley High School." Totally understandable. In fact, it fit perfectly into the raison d'etre of any interview with this man, a pianist who plays in bars at the Bellagio five nights a week.

Surprisingly, though, Osborne seemed excited. It's not like he's new at this; he's a regular at the White House. He's played at Christmastime there pretty much every year since late in Bill Clinton's second term, has Jimmy Carter's cell number and e-mail address on his iPhone, and has tickled the ivories at one location or another for six presidents.

"It never gets old," he says later when the arrangements for his Obama meet-and-greet were squared away. "Each and every time, it's so exciting. I can't even really tell you why."

Read the rest at LasVegasWeekly.Com

Show is UP: The Presidential Podcast

It's quite a presidential week here in Vegas, so the podcast reflects that with a fascinating chat with Bellagio pianist David Osborne as well as a brief, strangely contentious one with our old pal George Maloof. Fun stuff. Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Feb. 15: A Presidential Podcast

What’s it like to host the president in your home? What’s it like to play the piano for the president at his home, that big white mansion in Washington D.C.? We’re about to answer both those questions, Vegas style. Palms owner George Maloof explains how he came to know President Obama and describes the hoopla around hosting him Thursday night for a Democratic fundraiser. Then Bellagio’s pianist David Osbourne talks about performing for six U.S. presidents including the last three at the White House. And while presidents are interesting, Osbourne’s story about the last vice president, Dick Cheney, is particularly bizarre.

In Banter: Harrah's gets P-Ho, Vegas gets Obama love, CityCenter does NOT get Obama love, another Lake Las Vegas closure, Chinese New Year is fun, the Viva Elvis party was not fun and why red ketchup is the new blue tape.

Links to stuff discussed:

Guest host Amy and Bay’s podcast, Grits to Glitz
David Osborne’s website where you can buy his music
YouTube channel for David Osborne work
Planet Hollywood is now part of Harrah's
The R-J’s piece on Robert Earl’s future
A photo of the psychadelic-looking Beijing Noodle No. 9
Articles about Casino Montelago, Hawaiian Tropic, Steve Wyrick and Krave problems
Greenspun v Station Casinos, per the Wall Street Journal
VegasMate, the iPhone app, from RateVegas.Com
Steve’s column about his VegasMate experience
The AP on the proposed McCarran liquor store plan
Steve’s AOLNews.Com and blog post on Chinese New Year
A summary of Viva Elvis reviews and Steve’s review
The classic shot of Gene Simmons pawing Amy’s hair
Steve’s AOLNews.Com piece on Obama’s visit and VegasHappensHere.Com posts on the Bellagio suite and Murren’s hopes

Bill Clinton: Vegas Headliner!?!

This must be a first, right?

Bill Clinton is giving a speech at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. For money. For, so I'm told, himself. And they're selling it on Ticketmaster. When they go on sale on Feb. 1 -- at 10 a.m. for those who wish to set their clocks to this -- they'll cost $35, $45, $65, $100 and $150, with a VIP package that includes a meet-and-greet for $750.

Right about now I suspect endangered Sen. Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus are thinking, "What a waste!" Or, in Titus' case, "What a fucking waste." They surely wouldn't mind that dough for their own increasingly tenuous re-election bids. But, hey, the Big Dog needs to scare up some change to pay for Chelsea's wedding, I guess.

But has there ever, ever, ever been an ex-president who has given a publicly ticketed speech in a major Vegas showroom to profit...himself? Ever? For that matter, does he do these sorts of engagements in other places? Does Bill Clinton headline the La Jolla Playhouse?

The press release was just the weirdest thing. It treated this dude like this was any ole act playing a Vegas gig and ran down his greatest hits. The speech has a name -- "Embracing Our Common Humanity" -- by which in this case he must mean our common desire to come to Vegas and make off like a bandit.

Here's what the AEG peeps sent around:

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 29, 2010) – President Bill Clinton, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, will speak at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Monday, February 22 at 7:30pm. President Clinton’s lecture is titled “Embracing our Common Humanity”.

The special evening event is presented by Caesars Palace and AEG Live. President Clinton served the United States for eight years during a time of unprecedented prosperity and change. Now, President Clinton is a powerful voice for progress around the world as he shares his unique insights and observations with audiences around the world. President Clinton’s public speeches describe the challenge of globalization, emphasize our growing interdependence, and point the way toward a common future based on shared goals and values.

William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice – first in 1992 and then in 1996. Under his leadership, the country enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. The Foundation has staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (now the Clinton Health Access Initiative, a separate nonprofit organization) which is helping 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS access lifesaving drugs. Other initiatives -- including the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative -- are applying a business-oriented approach worldwide to fight climate change and develop sustainable economic growth in Africa and Latin America. As a project of the Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow.

In addition his Foundation work, President Clinton has joined with former President George H.W. Bush three times – after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008 – to help raise money for recovery efforts. He also served as the U.N. Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, and was named U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 to assist its people and government as they “build back better” from recent storm damages and implement their economic vision for the future.


Seriously? We need Bill Clinton's resume? They need to sell the world on how awesome he (thinks he) is? Funny it left out the part about being impeached, huh? I mean, he's only the second president in 150 or so years to have that distinction!

And who do they think will pay to line his pocket? I can see if this was a fundraiser for Haiti or something, maybe. But it's unfathomable that tourists will say, "Well, there's that awesome Cirque show at the Mirage, but oh, look! Bill Clinton is talking!" And locals rarely go down to the Strip on school nights.

If you're hot to see this one -- You are? Really? -- I strongly suggest you hold off on buying tickets. Or give a ring the day before to the local Democratic Party, where they'll surely be looking for seatfillers.

I wonder if he'll play the sax. I hear the acoustics in that place are awesome.

Wynn on Spitzer by way of Dodd on Clinton

I suspect the Eliot Spitzer thing is pretty over over there, but this was such a funny little nugget from last week's Steve Wynn chat that I really had to get it out there.

I was curious about his take on Spitzer, who Wynn said he hadn't ever met, and he offered this anecdote about Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.:

Friess: You’re a powerful man who has everything going for you. Why do powerful men who have everything going for them do stupid things?

Wynn: [pause, deep sigh] I think, truth be known, Steve, that on the subject of sex, that one subject, there’s more hypocrisy in this world than anybody ever dreamed. ... Everybody lies about sex. This is a crack that Chris Dodd made when we were playing golf at Shadow Creek one day. We were talking about Clinton.. I said, ‘America’s got to get over vetting politicians by checking their sex life. Everybody lies about sex. Don’t go there. Men and women don’t tell the truth about the subject. Sex is sort of a weird area of human behavior. And then Chris Dodd, it as on the 18th green, made the funniest remark. He said, ‘Steve, most people lie during sex!’ That was a good one, wasn’t it?

Yes, sir. It sure is.

Going Out In Style at Fancypants Hospital

To some, this may seem a strange and possibly completely inappropriate post, but I write what moves me and I find the setting I've been in for the past week to be somewhat surreal. As most know, my 65-year-old uncle, Richard Goldman, is in the final stages of pancreatic cancer. It is heartbreaking especially because he is a lot of pain and still his heart seems far from quitting and also because he will leave behind my aunt, one of the neatest women I know who just lost her father six months ago, and my 18-year-old cousin. Rough stuff.

That said, this section of this hospital is NUTS. This half of the 9th floor of New York Presbyterian Hospital is known as the McKeen Pavilion, a relatively elegant section where, according to the rate card at the concierge desk, patients may enjoy the corner suite with a river view (that's the HUDSON River) for $1,150 a day. I shit you not. That comes, of course, with "daily New York Times delivery; complimentary spa robe and slippers, complimentary telephone and television, upgraded menu and afternoon tea service (room service style.)" Here below is the tea cart comin' round.


Here is what the view looks of the George Washington Bridge to the north and lower Manhattan and New Jersey to the south. (The NYC skyline is often much clearer, but weather has been overcast and gloomy all week.)


If the corner suites are a little steep, the same amenities apply to the junior suite ($990/day), delux river view room ($717/day) and private riverview room ($650/day). Each room allows one cot for visiting guests, but if you've got more fans in need of lodging, there are eight hotel rooms, each with two twin beds, private bath, TV, phone, fridge and coffee pot for $225/night. Frankly, THAT'S such a good deal in New York that I wonder if you can rent them even if you don't know anybody who's sick.

This is one of those hospitals that has a sense of fame surrounding it. While it's unclear what parts of the hospital or whether the McKeen Pavilion is involved, Richard Nixon, Joey Ramone and Malcolm X all died here or were pronounced dead here. Sunny Von Bulow, the wife of Klaus Von Bulow (a role that won an Oscar for Jeremy Irons in "Reversal of Fortune") has lain in a persistent vegitative state here since 1981. And most recently, Bill Clinton recovered from his heart surgery on this floor. There's a large atrium where a live pianist plays a few hours a day on weekends. The entire area is carpeted, which is one way you know you've left the ordinary, more hospital-like section of this floor and wandered into the Wynn of health care.

My uncle is neither rich or powerful and is not paying these rates. (For that reason, we actually don't get the tea, the robe or the daily newspaper. Fair's fair.) He ended up here because when he was brought into the ER, he needed a certain type of morphine drip that required him to be admitted immediately to a room, but there were no normal rooms available for another several hours. So the admitting ER doctor forced him into the posh section, and here we are.

One of the most intriguing parts of all this is the Windows on the Hudson restaurant, a white-cloth eatery with views of the river, a gourmet chef, a waitstaff in formal attire and calla lillies on each table. (The name is a little eerie as the World Trade Center had a famous top-floor restaurant called Windows on the World.) The menu changes regularly; tonight's offerings included tequila grilled shrimp ($7.50), kobe beef burgers ($14), grilled halibut ($18) and patti pan squash and baby carrots ($3.50). Below is an empty table with a view of the bridge that is unseen because of my flash and a group enjoying a night on the town.

We were going to eat in the restaurant tonight but when my aunt told my uncle she was leaving the room for a little while he surprised her by responding (he's been largely unresponsive) by grabbing her hand and rasping, "No." So we had the food delivered, and here's a shot of that.

We were having the grilled strip steak (with mushroom ragout and mashed potato), gemelli al pomodore and the orange tarragon chicken (with rice pilaf and haricot vert). Oh, and all the entrees come with popovers and strawberry butter.

Quite a place, huh? Oh, and I almost forgot...free wi-fi, too. Like I said, NUTS. But in a good way.