In terms of quantity, quality and proximity, the Los Angeles Times is the closest thing Las Vegas has to a major metropolitan daily. (Hell, the Sacramento Bee puts the Las Vegas Review-Journal to shame.) Indeed, the LAT treats Sin City as a distant, less-virtuous suburb of the City of Angels. A recent spate of stories jibes with the current trend of cautious optimism in the Vegas casino industry. Admittedly, LAT coverage focuses on our bargain-based appeal, but the perception of affordability is a reliable building block for tourism in Southern Nevada. For instance, the deservedly beloved El Cortez gets a lot of LAT affection, especially for its Cabana Suites, the location of Sharon Stone‘s death scene in Casino. Admittedly, if the rooms are “tiny” in the building’s newish, 64-unit configuration, I’d can only imagine how cramped they were when it was a 120-room motel. However, correspondent Christopher Smith gives them props for decor and value alike. Smith also accords some backhanded compliments to the Plaza Hotel & Casino. Still, I wonder if Tamares Group couldn’t be bothered to paint over water stains on the casino ceiling, how much better could the place be? A less-jaded friend of mine paid the Plaza a visit right after its reopening and fled almost at once, so underwhelmed was she.
Keeping with the bargain-conscious theme, reporter Mary Forgione enumerates 21 Vegas bargains costing less than $21 apiece. LVA‘s own news desk — speaking of jaded! — hailed this as “a more imaginative list than is the norm.” Item #5, “Bird-watching at the Flamingo Hotel” isn’t nearly as good as it was before Gary Loveman banished all the penguins to Dallas but it’s both worthwhile and free. Still, that’s about as close to finding fault with the proposed itinerary. Caesars Entertainment‘s Strip properties get quite a number of shout-outs but newer Xanadus are left out in the cold. Hipster hangout The Cosmopolitan rates no higher than #20 and Mandarin Oriental‘s tea lounge in the sky obtains the lone CityCenter accolade … albeit in the lofty #4 spot. (Springs Preserve gets #1 ranking.)
Not only does the Pinball Hall of Fame nab an all-but-mandatory mention in Forgione’s list, it merits a breakout story all its own. For instance, did you know that many of the proceeds go to the Salvation Army? I’m also reliably informed that the PBHoF is now in charge of the pinball arcade at the Riviera, which would be a smart move. My only concern is that the increasing popularity of PBHoF owner Tim Arnold‘s antique machines is that recent visits have found them to be malfunctioning faster than they can be fixed. Perhaps that’s why no casino (to my knowledge) has attempted a Slot Machine Hall of Fame, even though it would be surefire tourist draw, at least among older customers, one in which we could play Sigma Derby safe in the knowledge that it won’t be trashed the moment the machine breaks.
Something else for nostalgists is the Big Retro Slide Show of “ambassador of Americana” Charles Phoenix. It kicks off a West Coast tour with April 6 and 8 performances at The Orleans. Subsequent stops include San Diego and L.A. If the sight of fez-topped Shriners marching down Glitter Gulch strikes a chord with you, Phoenix’s traveling exhibit is required viewing. After all, nothing about Vegas is quite so hip as its history.
Another rapidly proliferating form of Vegas attraction is the firing range. Machine Guns Vegas, tucked behind the Strip, is a new, upscale rival to the Gun Store, a popular shooting gallery out near Pecos Road. It’s also a new version of high-end “nightlife,” complete with waitresses but with automatic weapons in lieu of bottle service. Of course, given the number of high-stress jobs in Las Vegas, there may be quite a number of locals lining up to work off their John Rambo-sized aggravations. It might not please certain casino moguls to read the New York Times‘ Adam Nagourney describe Trump International and Wynncore as relics of an era that already “seems almost quaintly outdated” but many will find a kernel of truth in that. There’s even a Vegas angle to the decline of contemporary journalism into ‘factiness’ and ‘truthiness.’ Post-modern academics may see merit in John D’Agata‘s fanciful What Happened There but it glories in precisely the sort of misinformation that we labor to dispel at Huntington Press. But if you’re attempting to digest D’Agata’s prose, perhaps you could wash it down with a few beers from Tenaya Creek Brewery. Its fame is spreading … well, at least as far as Arizona, where Phoenix New Times‘ was moved to rhapsodize about Tenaya Creek’s suds, “perfectly clear liquid, [atop which] an inch of cream-colored froth rests like craggy mountains.”
Once “Vegas” becomes synonymous with “good microbreweries,” then and only then will we be one of the great cities of the world.
Parlez-vous “Zarkana”? Although the traveling Cirque du Soleil show Zarkana won’t open at Radio City Music Hall until D-Day (running through Sept. 2), you might as well wait a while to buy tickets and see it in Vegas. Today, CdS confirmed rumors that Zarkana will fill the gaping void to be left at Aria when Viva Elvis shakes its last pelvis next August. Cirque will have less than two months to install, fine-tune and preview Zarkana but it’s a show that’s built to tour — despite “huge programation” — which is a theoretically less cumbersome proposition that having to configure a show to fit a specific venue (and vice versa). It can go into the Aria show “as is” and MGM doesn’t have to cover an eight or nine-figure production budget. While there may be a despairing soupir or three about MGM Resorts International importing yet another Cirque product, give MGM execs credit for speedily “fixating” a situation that would have left CityCenter utterly show-less. Let’s just hope Jim Murren doesn’t cut a deal with Sheldon Adelson to afflict us with Zaia, which recently bombed in Macao and accordingly got the vaudeville hook.
Meantime, Mystere rolls happily along at Treasure Island, bulked up with the addition of a couple of numbers from ill-fated Zed. One of these is a big routine involving a large troupe of trapeze artists, which was pretty hit-and-miss when seen last weekend. Still, Mystere continues to be an entertaining paradox: It’s the oldest Cirque show in Vegas yet somehow never gets old.
