Leroy Neiman is our Toulouse-Lautrec, tirelessly capturing our public gaiety in his runny impressionism. Is there an artist more closely identified with Vegas? Possibly not. Which made him the go-to artist when the team captains of the Las Vegas Centennial wanted an image to decorate the city's birthday. Neiman responded with "Celebrating 100 Years in Neon," a group portrait of Las Vegas mainstays: a showgirl, Vegas Vic, gambling scenes, the Welcome sign, a cocktail. Iconic Vegas sights, for sure, rendered in a palette of muted yellows, blues and greens. Signature Neiman. He is a painter of showy surfaces, which may sound apt for the city, but what about the occasion? Isn't glib superficiality just the face we show to tourists and pop-culture commentators? Surely an image meant to mark such a milestone ought to know the difference between icons and cliches a little better, ought to have something enlightening tucked in there for the residents of the place being celebrated. But perhaps not; this is a tourist town, after all. Perhaps whether you like this image depends on whether you think the Centennial is for us or them. If you like what you see, posters of the image are available for $45 at www.lasvegas100merchandise.com.
I'm always amused by the weekend warrior journalist's perspective about our little town. Howard Seftel's nice little essay in Arizona Republic, April 6th, with the subheading "Las Vegas runs short on lunch," misses the point right on schedule. But then, we'd be mildly disappointed if it didn't.
His thesis that we are a great dinner, good breakfast and indifferent lunch town has it all wrong. Who in his right mind eats breakfast after a dissolute night of gaming and debauchery? Few among us are, in fact, even awake.
But tourists and locals lunch ravenously, at revamped buffets like Cravings and Dishes, at terrific seafood bars such as R-bar at Mandalay Bay, and at a riot of venues that he neglects to mention. Seftel rightly singles out two new restaurants, Sensi and Café Ba-ba-reeba, as worthy, and I won't quibble with his abrupt dismissal of MGM Grand's 'wichcraft, even if I went on record as kowtowing to the meatloaf sandwich he rejected.
He could easily have stepped over to the new Forum Shops wing at Vegas for a meal at Joe's, bypassed 'wichcraft for a lunch at Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill, eaten the best risotto and pizza in town at Circo in Bellagio (which has an incredible new chef from Italy, Stefano Chiarugi), or headed out to any number of small ethnic places off-Strip, the venerable Thai palace of gastronomy Lotus of Siam, being just one.
That notwithstanding, I'll look you up when I want to know where to eat in Phoenix, Mr. Seftel.
The Nevada Imaging Centers in Henderson had an open house last week, touting the "World's First Open MRI." And, though it wasn't actually the world's first open MRI (that's been around for more than 20 years) it may have been the world's first open house where a contortionist frolicked on the open MRI. With legendary Vegas flair, this taut brunette, wearing a Velveeta-colored spandex unitard, went from doing the splits to curling up in a ball to laying any which way on the medical equipment, created by Philips Medical Systems. In other rooms, a harpist plucked, hors d'oeuvres circulated, and doctors chatted, making no mention of the contortionist on the MRI. Though they must have been curious of the wonders she could do if loosed on a CT scanner.
Not long ago the Review-Journal ran a story about a senatorial spat that quoted a John Kerry flack: "Anyone trying to invent even a hint of discord between John Kerry and Harry Reid is engaging in pure folly. It's just cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." On the facing A3, in "Vegas Confidential," Norm! had a Hard Rocker disputing an "escort's" claim she'd been cozy with Kevin Federline: " 'I was with Kevin 18 hours a day Saturday and Sunday,' said Tommy Lipnick... 'She wasn't even in the same building. She's coo coo for Cocoa Puffs.'" Are people really saying this? Should we standardize: Coo coo or Cuckoo? Or is it already so last-week-of-March? Whatever. We say, don't go there.
"One B-school professor compares the rigor of Harrah's marketing efforts to epidemiologists who use clinical trials to test the efficacy of drugs."