Las Vegas podcast #111 includes:
- What Not To Wear opening clip
- Stardust implosion
- Canyon Club comes to Four Queens
- Hard Rock announces expansion plans
- Mandalay Bay Gold Class Rooms
- Lucky Strike and Poly Esther’s open
- Calls and commentary on Las Vegas during the NCAA basketball tournament, ultra lounges, Project City Center and much more
Five Hundy By Midnight 3/18/07 (52:59 min, 48.7 MB)
I am truly honored that you included my post Stardust-implosion calls on your podcast. It is hostoric in a very real, and original way. Thank you.
My choking was indeed physical rather than emotional. I didn’t feel “right” and was authentically concerned. Listening to my voice playback, I think I sounded thick.
Perhaps on a slow week I will call-send an audio of my choking on The Strip. Perhaps not.
I photographed The Stardust intensely for some time. It was a project and an unpaid job. Day and night, I was often there.
When The Stardust closed on November 1, 2006, I was really impressed with how they let people out gently and happily. It was planned and executed very well.
I have heard of other casino closings where the actual close was somewhat confrontational, or at least unpleasant. Such as people on machines, and officials come around announcing the closing of one area after another, and thus essentially saying “it’s time for you to get up and go.”
Stardust closed their machines at 8 and 9 am, gently, and with signed notice on the machines.
The actual eviction from the premises occurred hours later, and was done joyfully by following a walking band through the hotel and out the door. It was a fun way and nice to leave.
I point this out because the implosion was similar. The pre-implosion fireworks show was so great, and so much more than expected, that when the implosion came, there was no resentment felt; at least not by me.
Thats not an easy thing to do.
I’m happy to have been a part of this weeks podcast, and to have heard myself again from that night.
historic, not hostoric, egads
Michele must watch American Idol. Nice use of “pronunciate”!
The odd thing about the implosion was that all of the lights went out when the actual explosion occurred and was quite colorless.
Look at some of the earlier implsoions with the fire and the lights as the building went down. Had to be extremey dangerous.
Dan
I do not know this definitively, but think that the dark implosion was related to a planned final feature which did not go off for some reason; the projecting of the word ECHELON in lasers on the dust cloud.
The Grucci artistic handout showed ECHELON being projected at 4 points, and described it. I have read that it didn’t occur because of the unexpected advance of the dust cloud. I don’t buy that reason, though it may be true.
Photographically I would have preferred the building to have been lit. Having it go down dark gave me the odd (but in some way okay) feeling, — did I just see a building I know fall down and disappear in front of me?
As for the Echelon lasers which did nto go off, I am glad. The entire event went off so well, and was such a tribute; I think that seeing Echelon lit up in the dust would have been inappropriate.
Well, that first message was a bit of a ramble but I still think CityCenter will be pretty neat. I’ll link up my article when I finish it.
As far as my new agency for regulating walking, I believe in it even more strongly than I did before.
I’m calling Sen. Reid as this is clearly an issue that impacts his state directly.
Hey there – thanks for including my voicemails as part of the podcast! Yes, the Wynn players card is now requiring 100 points for two free buffets. It took approximately an hour of 25-cent video poker to hit that number on Friday evening. Or maybe it was two – hard to tell while you’re in Vegas. We enjoyed the buffet the next morning – I highly recommend the huge slab of bacon at the carving station. Have them carve off one little slice for everyone else and then take the rest of the slab back to your table. Delicious.
Carving station with bacon? Please elaborate! Is it crispy bacon, or Canadian style bacon? I must know.
Ah. Perhaps I can describe it in lurid detail. I should have snapped a few photos, although that would have been quite obnoxious.
It seems this topic was briefly discussed in the comments for show 78, but I’ll try to do better.
Smack in the center of the Wynn buffet, at least for Saturday brunch, is a carving station. What appears to be a huge slab of perfectly-browned flank steak, is, in actuality, bacon.
Is it crispy? Yes, on the outside. The inside is more like Canadian bacon. The standard slice appears to be 1/4″ inch thick – any more, and you’ve really just asked for a fattier piece of ham.
This is the first I’ve seen bacon cut from a slab, and if you google “Wynn Bacon” or something like that you’ll find a few more references to it. Pretty unique. That Wynn. He thought of everything.
What else was really good on the Buffet? The Kung Pao chicken, the five different kinds of ceviche, and the selection of tasty ice cream. The coffee could have been better – it seems identical to what you can buy for $3 a cup in the coffee shop across from the ticket will-call, and that isn’t worth it either.
Oh yeah– I remember drooling at the thought of 2 kinds of bacon back then as well. I’m having bacon vu.
I did read a report about having seafood gravy with biscuits, which seems like an abomination to me. But they can make it up to me with bacon in its various forms.
I can attest to the ceviche, though– that was excellent.
Mmmmm. My plate looked a little nicer than hers. Buffet selection in the Vegas is a learned skill, you know. I did indulge in the strawberries-and-cream which were tasty. I passed on the seafood gravy and biscuits because any gravy on a buffet, no matter if it is Wynn-gravy blessed by Steve himself (who wouldn’t know if he was blessing gravy, or anything else, unless it was directly in front of him, and even then, he might put his elbow in it) is probably a bad idea. Although I’m pretty sure when I passed by the gravy it had the ubiquitous “W y n n .” logo scrawled across the top. There’s probably a special Wynn kitchen utensil that’s used just for that.
On Saturday morning at 9:30, the buffet line was eerily quiet. There was one horde of fanny-pack-and-knee-length-jean-short-wearing tourists from Iowa in front of us, but that was it*. Otherwise, nobody in sight. Very, very, very strange for what should have been a busy Vegas weekend. As I said in my last voicemail, I don’t get why it was so empty.
While I’m rambling about buffets, the Orleans one which I had on Thursday morning has gone downhill since I last visited it four years ago. Then again, I’m pretty sure it is so cheap they pay you to sit down in there.
*my apologies to anyone from Iowa that has visited Vegas in knee-length jean shorts and stored their daytime essentials in a fannypack.
If you’re denied entry into Four Queens’ nightclub, I will BUY and ship a pair of Ferragamos to you.
Regarding the drunk guy in the background of all implosions screaming his head off… what you are actually hearing there is a phenomenon known as “That Guy”. This phenomenon also appears in about 7% of all group pictures taken in public. Examples of this are pictured here: http://www.smithappens.com/thatguy.php
If you guys want to go to a club on this trip but aren’t sure where Tim can get in due to inadequate foot attire… try stopping by the Lucky Strike. They won’t bar him for wearing his favorite shoes… they’ll just request that they he rent a pair of theirs. Just don’t show up in mandles… if you don’t have socks, you can’t rent their shoes.
Street Name Suggestions:
-MonkeyPokerDome Avenue
-Keno is BAAAAD Boulevard
Can you please refrain from talking about sausagefest so much? I always get such a craving for pancakes and eggs. But, there’s never a good Denny’s around when you need one.
Spent last weekend at the Gold Coast for the NCAA basketball tournament and have a mini casino review.
The Gold Coast isn’t much of a destination resort, no restaurants I would eat at, and no nightlife, but does offer some good gambling options. $5 and $10 2-deck blackjack, a decent sportsbook, and plenty of 9-6 Jacks or Better video poker. All for $325 for 5 nights during a busy weekend, about the same as one weekend night on the strip last week. Also next door to the Rio and Palms which both offer plenty of dining and nightlife.
One additional comment on the smoking ban. Although the casinos were as smoky as ever it was nice to be able to escape to a restaurant or bar for some clean air. A noticeable difference.