Cinevegas + WSOP = All In

As folks following my Tweets and Facebook statuses know, I've been running around like mad the past few days, working on a new piece for the Times that has sucked up a huge amount of time away from the computer and I've also been trying to keep tabs on Cinevegas because the lineup is the most interesting in all the years I've covered it.

I was a little concerned, though, after "Saint John of Las Vegas" yesterday. The opening night premiere, starring Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman, was a weird little flick that just didn't engage me and that distracted me by the several smaller details about its titular city that it got wrong.

But I knew there were a number of really good pictures in the lineup because I'd already seen all the gay-related ones for this Advocate.Com piece. In particular, "It Came From Kuchar" is wonderful and I'm looking forward to Friday's premiere and the Q-and-A session with the Kuchars on Sunday at 9 p.m.

Still, I was unprepared for how much I enjoyed "All In: The Poker Movie" tonight. Premiering as it did during the early stages of the 2009 World Series of Poker across the street from the Palms at the Rio, it drew some poker stars who are also in the film including WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and two-time bracelet winner Howard Lederer...



Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth were supposed to be there, too, but they were doing so well in one of the WSOP tourneys they couldn't. Occupational hazard. Amarillo Slim was there, however.

As for the film itself, let me first say that I'm someone who became interested in poker in the first place because it's a perennial story that someone is asks me to cover each year. We also get huge download numbers whenever we have poker stars on "The Strip." (We've had Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Hachem, Jerry Yang and Greg Raymer over the years, all of which can be found at TheStripPodcast.Com.)

But "All In" tonight really taught me something else: The poker boom is about as American as anything ever was. The variation on the game itself -- Texas Hold 'Em -- is an American invention. Risk-taking is the foundation of our capitalist society. And the ingredients that turned it into what it is today include new technology (hole-card cams, Web poker) and anyone-can-succeed chutzpah (Moneymaker) that have deep roots in our national traditions.

It wasn't just that it was a sweeping, artful film. It was that, although some of the blurry camera angles and odd tics of speakers could be grating. But from dignified Doris Kearns Goodwin to cool-cat Matt Damon, from Southern-fried Slim to lovably goofy Phil Laak, from scholarly Dr Dave Schwartz to curmudgeonly Frank DeFord, documentarian Douglas Tirola really cast a very wide net of diverse voices to explain where this phenomenon came from and who it impacts. I also appreciate that not everyone is likeable -- World Poker Tour's Steve Lipscomb comes across as a total, arrogant prick -- and that not everything is positive, as when Tirola delves (briefly) into recent online poker cheating scandals.

That said, there are gaps: No discussion of problem gambling or sexism in the game, no serious effort to allow anyone who objects to online gambling or gambling in general to offer a cogent argument for their side. And Ira Glass? Really? Blech.

But even without all that -- it's not a Ken Burns PBS special after all -- it's really a compelling movie that needed to be done and done with this sort of maturity. If you're near the Palms on Friday at 12:30 p.m., check it out. Too bad it's not on over the weekend. Also too bad I cannot find a YouTube trailer of this film or even a website to point you to.

Meanwhile, Cinevegas has really taken over the Palms. The Lounge, where we did the Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza (and are waiting for the OK to do again in October) last year has been transformed into a headquarters for media and film folks. There's video games...


...and a pool table...


...and music...

...and fun couches.


Finally and appropriately, I was stuck behind this on the way home...

Roger Thomas: The Advocate Profile

I'm on a layover in Atlanta -- God, how often have I written those six words on this blog in recent months?!? -- so to avoid other work, I figured I'd post the newly minted link to my lengthy profile in the June issue of The Advocate of Roger Thomas, whom Dave McKee of Stiffs & Georges referred to today as "inarguably the most influential designer in Vegas history." Or, as I write in the first line, "Steve Wynn’s gay alter ego." This was a piece that was assigned at 1,200 words. I filed 2,500 -- coulda gone on, he's so fascinating and important -- and they ran it all. That never happens.

Annoyingly, the piece went to press before Thomas called off his Wynn retirement. We're able to indicate that online but not in print. Them's the breaks.

Foto Fun: Inside The Wynn Artist's Studio

A few weeks ago, while working on a lengthy profile of Wynn designer Roger Thomas that is scheduled to appear in The Advocate in June, I got a tour by his assistant of the Wynn design studios near McCarran Airport where plans for Wynn and Encore as well as the Macau editions of both were hatched. Because there were concerns about the publication of proprietary designs on this blog, I had to have Thomas' permission to post these photos, which I finally have.

Also have this news: In the next two months, Thomas said his team will be presenting to Steve Wynn ideas for redesigns of the original Wynn Las Vegas rooms. There will be new color schemes, new furnishings, new linens and drapes and mattresses. I didn't get to see any of that, but the resort is coming up on five years old in 2010. That's the typical cycle for redoing rooms for Wynn.

Anyhow, the studio. As you might suspect, there are a series of workrooms overloaded with bits and pieces of potential designs. On a daily basis, Thomas and his staff are inundated with fabrics, carpets, images of artwork and other samples from hopeful designers, precious few of which actually end up being used.

Here's the frame wall, a variety of sconces and lighting fixtures and other stacks of stuff...





There is a system intact, as much to keep track of all this as to not get accused of stealing ideas:


This got damaged and is being fixed:

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Below is an earlier iteration of the space at Encore where there is now a stage off from the pool and conference rooms overlooking:


Something needs to be hung at the Sinatra restaurant at Encore:


There are original Boteros in the hallway...


...and plenty of art involving Thomas himself:


Click on this one below to see what sort of books lurk in Roger Thomas' office library...


...but the books that really matter are these, those that Thomas has carried with him and sketched his ideas in as they occur to him for decades, all saved and lined up behind his chair:


The kids from the private Meadows School made this for Thomas after a visit:


And, of course, there is the hardhat. The pink hard hat. I did mention I was writing for The Advocate, yeah?


I shot some photos of the Sky Casino at Encore last week with Thomas. Will post that, too, when he OK's them.

Just In Time For Our First Anniversary...

Miles and I will be celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary this month with a vacation to Switzerland. (Yay, us!) But before that, I revisited our wedding for a special Vegas issue of The Advocate, the GLBT newsmag.

You can read that essay here. The issue covers all things Vegas, with an exuberant Bette Midler on the cover.

Also, I'll be appearing at The Advocate's issue party on Monday, March 10, at 10:30 p.m. at Ivan Kane's 40 Deuce bar at Mandalay Bay. On Monday nights, they have male burlesque dancers; the rest of the week it's ladies.

It's free and open to the public.