The show is UP: Cheap Trick

Here's this week's episode of "The Strip" featuring a conversation with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. It was fun for me to recall my own Rockford roots -- my first newspaper job -- and Amy and I had some excellent banter about the week's news. Click on the date below to listen or right-click to download and hear it at your leisure. Also, subscribe (it's free!) via iTunes or Zune. (does anyone listen via Zune? Email me!). -sf

Sept. 17: Cheap Trick Hopes You Will Enjoy The Show

In a city of knockoffs and impersonations, how do you go about reinterpreting a great piece of music without being tainted as a copycat? Well, it helps if you’re already a legendary rock band in your own right behind you, too. That’s how Cheap Trick’s doing it anyway, landing at the Las Vegas Hilton for nine performances of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band before a full orchestra and assisted by such other pop stars as Joan Osbourne. Cheap Trick’s guitarist and vocalist Rick Nielsen joins us this hour to talk about the band’s relationship with the Beatles, about growing up in Rockford, Ill., and whether this swing of shows could portend a resident Vegas gig of some form soon.

In banter: Mindy Kaling gets Vegas whiners whining, Terry Fator puts puppets on cabs, Amy gets a Vegas welcome on her European cruise, Top Chef's been good to Hubert Keller and more.

Links to stuff discussed:

Get tickets to see Cheap Trick’s Sgt. Pepper Live at the Hilton
Cheap Trick’s website
Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza on Oct. 17 at the Palms
See the redesigned VegasHappensHere.Com
Amy’s revived (for how long?) podcast, Grits to Glitz
Amy’s trip report on her European cruise
Sparky of Las Vegas, our redesigner and hero
Watch the whole Mindy Kaling clip
VegasHappensHere.Com’s rant on the whiners re: Kaling
Luv-It Frozen Custard’s website
Join Steve’s Facebook group “Las Vegas Needs To Grow A Pair”
Fleur de Lys, owned by Hubert Keller
Steve’s TV Guide Magazine piece on CSI: The Experience

Defending WHHSH - and wondering why

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is in a bind over whether to defend its trademark on "What Happens Here Stays Here," according to a Benjamin Spillman piece in today's Review-Journal. Apparently they've spent $732,123 doing so already and Mayor Oscar Goodman, chairman of the LVCVA board, thinks it's probably a better idea if they just give it up already. And he's right. Very right.

Look, the phrase is already now married in the world's consciousness to Vegas which is, in and of itself, an amazing feat since it existed long before it was applied to the city. What, is Rockford, Ill., going to start using it? They'll look stupid. (OK, it's Rockford, so they'll look MORE stupid.) No other tourism destination or attraction is going to bother just as Ford's not going to use "Heartbeat of America" even if they could. The LVCVA ought to count themselves lucky that the WHHSH phrase wasn't yet being abused by someone else when they happened upon it and just enjoy all the echo-chamber usages as furtherance of the campaign. It might be different if someone had had some foresight to market official LVCVA merchandise with the logo, but nobody did and that's that.

While we're at it, though, something funny from my mail today. I got some info from San Diego wanting me to come write a travel story about the city. And I was reminded of how challenging it is to come up with a tourism slogan when I saw the god-awful clunker that they use:

"San Diego: 365 Days of Ahhhhhhh."

Here's an article on how they came up with that.

Makes it sound like a daily visit to the dentist. And yes, I counted. Seven "h"s. Oh, and they trademarked it. Which is a waste when your slogan is so ridiculous.