{"id":16011,"date":"2015-05-08T14:27:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T22:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16011"},"modified":"2019-04-15T08:58:35","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T16:58:35","slug":"carey-raptures-and-wreckage-vegas-affordability-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/carey-raptures-and-wreckage-vegas-affordability-tested\/","title":{"rendered":"Carey: raptures and wreckage; Vegas’ affordability tested"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our most giddy local gossip merchant experienced multiple verbal orgasms when describing Mariah Carey<\/strong>‘s Caesars Palace<\/strong> residency show. Even the Second Coming of \"Caesars<\/a>Jesus Christ<\/strong> would have a hard time living up to this nonstop gush. (Helpful hint: If Carey has been singing “vocal chords [sic!<\/em>]” she’s capable of feats bordering on the supernatural.) Where the Las Vegas Sun<\/em> experienced The Rapture, the New York Times<\/em> saw a train wreck<\/a>. Probably the most usable promotional blurb\u00a0will be “looking away is never the right choice.” Comparing Carey’s vocal cords to “decaying manufacturing machinery,” reviewer Jon Caramanica<\/strong> raised the spectre of lip-synching when confronted by pristine high notes amidst “a largely difficult two hours” that reprised her number-one hits, with many a downward transposition along the way.<\/p>\n

Apparently being the home of Celine Dion<\/strong> is not enough to preserve Caesars from the reputation of being a place where careers are put out to pasture: “That she\u2019s embarking upon something like this is already a sign of defeat,” Caramanica writes. (Britney Spears<\/strong> is referenced as a fellow has-been.) His deconstruction of Carey’s performance was thorough and devastating. Let one more quote suffice: “‘Fantasy’ featured Ol\u2019 Dirty Bastard<\/strong>, who died in 2004, rapping via video, and he felt more alive than Ms. Carey, who was right there onstage.” Oy vey!<\/p>\n

* GOBankingRates.com<\/strong> has been crunching vacation numbers and rates Las Vegas<\/strong> as the most affordable destination<\/a> in the U.S. (If you live here, that’s initially difficult to believe but let’s roll with it — and the recommendation is premised on the avoidance of gambling.) Fortunately for Vegas and not so fortunately for them, three of the industry’s most-desired new territories: Boston<\/strong>, Jersey City<\/strong> and Miami<\/strong> make the “least affordable” list … as does New York City<\/strong>, although Resorts World New York<\/strong> makes it somewhat of a special case.<\/p>\n

* Speaking of affordability, get prepared to pay double-digit parking fees at Strip casinos when MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and AEG<\/strong> open their as-yet-unnamed arena<\/a>. \"CityCenter<\/a>They’ve got big plans for the 20,000-seat venue, feverishly lobbying for an NHL<\/strong> franchise and more NCAA<\/strong> playoff games. MGM Vice President for Arenas (yes, that’s his title) Mark Prows<\/strong>\u00a0tells Jon Katsilometes<\/strong> that “with the advent of the Pac-12 Tournament<\/strong> and other basketball conferences holding their tournaments here, that has made the NCAA understand that this big, evil place of Las Vegas actually has a lot of big business and corporate compliance around it.”<\/p>\n

As for access, forget about on-site parking for the most part. MGM is placing heavy reliance on the Las Vegas Monorail<\/strong> and its own trams and even those stop well short of the arena. Plan on working off a little shoe leather (and some calories) when you start attending events there, next year.<\/p>\n

* Nobody seems to want to reach a deal in Florida<\/strong>, where the Seminole Tribe<\/strong>‘s current gaming compact (and right to blackjack) is fast running out. Not the Seminole, who \"Bradley\"<\/a>rejected a one-year extension pitched by state Sen. Rob Bradley<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>) to extend the current compact by a year. Not Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R), who has dumped this whole mess at the feet of the Legislature. Not lawmakers like state Rep. Jared Moskowitz<\/strong> (D), who is pushing for a hard-and-fast sunset date on the compact. (It expires in July but contains a grace period that gives the Seminoles until October to discontinue the disputed games, a deadline the Seminoles may try to push out indefinitely<\/a>.) It’s a sign of far apart the various faction are that Bradley has experienced a change of heart, throwing up his hands and declaring that only expiration of the compact will bring resolution. From here it’s hard to argue with the man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our most giddy local gossip merchant experienced multiple verbal orgasms when describing Mariah Carey‘s Caesars Palace residency show. Even the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would have a hard time living up to this nonstop gush. (Helpful hint: If Carey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,36,7,112,11,33,74,9,19,100,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16011"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23928,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011\/revisions\/23928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}