November is shaping up as a huge month for touring headliners in Las Vegas. Big-name acts rolling through town include The Eagles (Nov. 5 and 19 at MGM Grand), Katy Perry (Nov. 19 at Mandalay Bay), Morrissey (Nov. 25 at Cosmopolitan), Sting (Nov. 25 at Caesars Palace) and Janet Jackson (Nov. 27 at Caesars Palace). One name, however, rises above them all.

In an extremely rare U.S. concert appearance, multi-talented renaissance man David Hasselhoff is scheduled to perform in The Orleans Showroom on Nov. 18-20. Tickets are $50. So pack up your German friends in your talking car, grab a sack of cheeseburgers and head to Las Vegas. The Hoff is back!

Remember back in May when we told you about plans for an all-year beer fest planned for the parking lot behind Bally’s? Even amidst our excitement at the idea of a new Las Vegas drinking experience, we always felt that the whole thing seemed a little off. And we were definitely skeptical about the Las Vegas World Beer Fest’s likelihood of sticking around for a full year.

So, it comes as no surprise that the Las Vegas World Beer Fest start date of Oct. 13, 2011, has been delayed indefinitely. The organizer’s website says new dates will be announced soon. Riiiiight.

Let’s examine where this falls on the official Five Hundy by Midnight “Things That Will Never Actually Open in Las Vegas, but Let’s Pretend They Will” List, in order from soonest to latest.

1. Fontainebleau
2. Exotic Animal Encounter (aka The Pocket Zoo)
3. Las Vegas World Beer Festival
4. Parabounce
5. Crown Las Vegas
6. Las Vegas WET
7. SkyView observation ferris wheel
8. The Moon Resort and Casino
9. Countryland USA

There was a time when the notion of Imperial Palace and O’Shea’s going away would have bummed me out. Unfortunately, under the ownership of Caesars Entertainment, most of the charm of these two joints has eroded. So with VegasTripping’s report today that both casinos are likely to undergo much more than the “reskinning” previously revealed, I’m just sort of meh about the whole thing. VT reports that we should know more when Caesars discusses the mighty Linq during a press conference on Wednesday.

The days of BEER Fun! Fun! Fun! are long gone.

Once again, the VegasTripping crew is on fire. If you’re not visiting VT daily, you’re missing the most interesting and entertaining Las Vegas news on the Websternets.

Update (8/17/11)
It’s official. For all of the details, read this and this and this and this.

A rock band needs energy if it’s going to rock ‘n’ roll all night and party every day. The secret for KISS is apparently coffee. KissOnline reports that during a Q&A at the fifth anniversary of the KISS Coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach, S.C., drummer Peter Criss Eric Carr Eric Singer and lead guitarist Ace Frehley Vinnie Vincent Mark St. John Bruce Kulick Tommy Thayer mentioned plans to open a Las Vegas location next year.

No word on whether KISS Coffeehouse will be located near the KISS mini golf course opening this fall.

I think Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley might be on to something with this whole KISS licensing idea. They should consider lending the band’s name out for a few other items.

The 1970s were a simpler time—a time when a man could appear on a game show, identify a few shitty songs and win a year’s supply of Turtle Wax, an organ or a brand new Datsun. Magic happened every day. Lives changed.

On Aug. 18, that magic returns when Name That Tune Live opens at Imperial Palace. Expect an official announcement with showtimes and ticket prices soon.

Although we’re still bummed about Firefly’s Plaza location closing, today’s announcement that Hash House a Go Go is taking over the hotel’s old buffet space is welcome news.

The new location is scheduled to open in early September to coincide with the freshly renovated Plaza’s reopening. For more details on how things are shaping up at Plaza, check out the interview Steve Friess conducted with CEO Tony Santo.

As we speculated on the podcast a few weeks ago, tasty tapas restaurant Firefly will not return when Plaza reopens later this year. In a Las Vegas Weekly article today, Steve Friess spills all of the dirt. It turns out the downtown crowd was just looking for a cheap view of Fremont Street.

The other two Firefly locations are still alive and well, and a third location is on the way. They’re a bit of a pain for us tourist shmucks who like to stick close to the Strip and Fremont Street. However, if you didn’t make it to the Plaza location during its short 18-month life, you may want to grab a cab and check one of them out.

Rumored for several months, Shania Twain announced this afternoon that she will be joining Celine Dion, Elton John and Rod Stewart as a resident performer at Caesars Palace. Her two-year residency will begin on Dec. 1, 2012, with 60 shows per year.

Although I’ve never been a huge country music fan, Shania has a slew of moderately tolerable, poppy hits—some of which are only a couple guitar solos, a mullet and a one-armed drummer from being Def Leppard songs (thanks to the work of ex-husband and DL producer Mutt Lange).

This show seems like a good fit for the Caesars Palace Colosseum. Shania has a decent-sized fanbase and caters to a broad audience. I just like her because we have similar fashion sensibilities.

During our most recent Las Vegas trip, crews at Planet Hollywood were putting the finishing touches on the casino’s renovated entrance. Gone is the generic Casino Entrance sign, in favor of a new Planet Hollywood sign and a metallic overhang.

In September 2010, Planet Hollywood proposed several changes to the entrance, including:

• Installing balconies above both Las Vegas Strip casino entrances, one of which would add outdoor seating for Japanese restaurant Koi.
• Replacing the Casino Entrance signs.
• Adding moving spotlights that would shine three lights into the sky. (How very Hollywood.)
• Modifying the entrance ramp to lead visitors closer to the casino entrance rather than PF Chang’s.

No word on whether the outdoor seating thing is going to happen, but it didn’t appear any railings were being installed yet on the overhang/potential balcony.

Brunch annoys me. I don’t like the word or the concept. It’s completely unnecessary. Breakfast is just fine on its own. Lunch is a perfectly acceptable meal as well. There’s no need to combine them and call it something else. If you enjoy breakfast food during the normal lunch time, fine. Go somewhere that serves breakfast around the clock. (Mmm… Denny’s.)

Restaurants typically serve brunch as a way to jack up prices on weekends. Anyone visiting a favorite Las Vegas buffet on Saturday or Sunday has likely been smacked with weekend brunch pricing $5 to $20 more than what they would pay during the week. Sure they’ll throw in mimosas or bloody marys, but unless you were planning on getting shit-hammered with your meal anyway, that alone doesn’t make brunch much more appealing than breakfast.

So when we arrived for breakfast at Cosmopolitan’s Wicked Spoon buffet (complete review coming soon on the podcast), I wasn’t thrilled to learn they had replaced breakfast and lunch with brunch seven days a week. Because Cosmo is new, it’s not surprising that they’re making adjustments, but the price bumps are Caesars-like.

December 2010 Hours and Pricing
Breakfast: 7 – 11 a.m. ($15)
Lunch: 11 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ($19)
Dinner: 5 – 10 p.m. ($27)
Saturday and Sunday Brunch: 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. ($23)

May 2011 Hours and Pricing
Monday through Friday Brunch: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. ($22)
Sunday through Thursday Dinner: Sun-Thur 5 – 9 p.m. ($35)
Friday and Saturday Dinner: 5 – 10 p.m. ($35)
Saturday and Sunday Brunch: 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. ($36 or $29 w/o booze)

Brunch defenders, I invite you to try to change my mind.