By John Katsilometes
On Monday night, Revolution Lounge at the Mirage finally found an excuse to play Beatles music. The event was the Vegas release party for Paul McCartney’s latest album, “Memory Almost Full.”
Organizers said it was the first opportunity for anyone to hear the new CD in its entirety, though the more avid Macca fans have been downloading individual tracks, particularly “Ever Present Past,” for weeks. Jimmy Kimmel’s house band, Cleto and the Cletons, played a half-hour set of McCartney-penned Beatles classics (a segment of that performance will air tonight on Kimmel’s ABC talk show). The video of “Dance Tonight” was shown on a couple of flat screens; the segment stars Natalie Portman (who is said to be McCartney’s new “best friend,” and if so an improvement over his most recent dispatched best friend) as a dancing apparition and Mackenzie Crook (who played the hapless suck-up Gareth on the British version of “The Office”) as a delivery man dropping of a left-handed mandolin.
It’s great casting, trust me.
“Memory Almost Full” is McCartney’s first release under Starbucks’ music label, First Music, and today the CD is playing relentlessly, all day, at every Starbucks coffee house in the world. I’m tellin’ ya, that’s a latte music (BA-DA-BANG-BUM).
I’m a big Beatles fan, and thus a big McCartney fan, and have been so since I was a kid wearing out the grooves in the compilation album “Rock and Roll Music” at age 10. As such an afflicted fan, I look forward to every new McCartney release. This seems to be one of his best, a musically inventive (hence, the mandolin) and lyrically ambitious effort in which McCartney gives us an idea of how he feels as he approaches age 65 (June 18 is his birthday). The songs on the latter half of the CD are stitched together, similar to the second side of “Abbey Road.” I like it at least as much as “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,” his acclaimed 2005 release.
But most of all it’s just refreshing to hear Paul’s voice again. He has been all about peace and love for a long time, a sentiment that has served him – and us – very well.
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While at Revolution, I met up with Bernie Yuman, manager of Siegfried & Roy and Muhammad Ali and, most recently, Venetian headliner Gordie Brown. Monday was Yuman’s birthday (No. 57), and the band played “Birthday” and invited Yuman onstage for “Let it Be,” where he swayed some and smiled but did not sing. Yuman, too, is a member of the Beatles Appreciation Society, as well as the Miami Dolphins Appreciation Society. As is customary, he wore his lucky orange-and-green Dolphins tube socks under a jet-black suit.
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The new schedule for “Monty Python’s Spamalot” (or, Spam-A-Bit-Less) at Wynn Las Vegas begins June 25. The 10 p.m. shows on Tuesdays and Fridays are being cut because of flagging ticket sales. Also changing is the ticket prices. The $49.99 rear mezzanine tickets will no longer be offered. The new rates will be $69 to $99, as they are now without the $49 seats. Tireless Wynn spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne (who seems never to be done) provided that info this morning.
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On our menus: Pt 78, the restaurant at Platinum (the stately eight-month-old nongaming hotel on the corner of Koval Lane and Flamingo Road), offers the Ridiculous Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Ridiculous, in that it is layered with Irish cheddar, boursin, Emmental, Point Reyes blue and havarti cheeses (what, no Velveeta?), and pesto-roasted tomatoes. The sides are Kennebec potato frites (better known as “fries”), chips or fresh fruit. The sandwich goes for $12 and is a veritable carnival of international cheeses.
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If you donate blood AND vote, you are so rare that, statistically, you might not exist. I happen to do both and am a better (if slightly dizzy) citizen for it. So I encourage anyone qualified to visit “Bodies … The Exhibition” at Tropicana on Saturday. The show is conducting a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the hotel. All donors receive a free ticket to “Bodies” and “Folies Bergere.” And I am led to believe there will be juice and cookies served to donors.
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The Comedy Festival announced Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock will headline shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace during the third installment of the festival, which runs from Nov. 14-17 at Caesars. No word on if Dave Chappelle, whose late decision to ditch last year’s Festival rankled organizers, is being invited back.
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Release me: An organization titled “We Need Alan Keyes for President” has launched the website AlanKeyes.com. According to a statement, the purpose of the site is to “determine and rally support for a presidential candidacy by Dr. Keyes.” The release clarifies that the organization is a political action committee not managed by Alan Keyes. But there’s no doubt the presidential campaign needs one more candidate, and that candidate is Alan Keyes.
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Plate in my head: A friend “out there” turns in LAPERLA on a white Sonata. La Perla is an Italian clothing design company known for its fancy lingerie, which is actually quite comfortable (OH! Joke).
Fabulous Las Vegas appears daily (well, almost) at this Web site. John Katsilometes can be reached at 990-7720, 812-9812 or at [email protected]