The self-appointed King of Crunk, Lil Jon, and his East Side Boyz, are nearing completion on their first adult film being shot here in Vegas, part of a two-picture deal with Vivid Entertainment—they of homegirl Jenna Jameson and most recently, Club Vivid at the Venetian. Starring Mercedez and a non-sex-having Lil Jon, there was no word on what local locations were being used for Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz Vivid Vegas Party, but we like to think there might be some creative intersplicing of footage of the Eiffel Tower and Stratosphere at the beginning of scenes and the Bellagio's fountains at the ... appropriate moment.
RANDOM QUOTES FROM NOT-SO RANDOM BOOKS |
D.J. Holle and Mary Healy are a couple of newly minted local authors.
The Last Van Gogh
By D.J. Holle
$11.95
"The Last Van Gogh is the story of ordinary people pushed to the limit. ... An FBI agent, a beautiful young geneticist, and the director of a major art museum become embroiled in a plot ..."
(Back-cover blurb)
Ah yes, those sorts of things are always happening to ordinary, run-of-the-mill FBI agents, beautiful young geneticists and major art museum directors.
Moments to Remember with Peter and Mary:
Our Life in Show Business from Vaudeville to Video
By Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy
$24.95
"While Brynie was still one of the Seven Little Foys, they did a command performance for President Woodrow Wilson. At the finish of the act ... the President stood up in his box. He waved for silence and proceeded to make a speech praising this fine American family. 'What a joy to behold the talents molded from the great tradition of the American theater, to think that such a lovely couple could give birth to seven beautiful children and that they too would inherit such wonderful and sparkling talent.' In the middle of the speech Brynie turned to Charlie and whispered out of the side of his mouth, 'Little does the President know, I've got the clap.'"
(page 34)
A page later finds Brynie and his brothers assaulting a young woman before turning to check forgery. Those were the days!
DVDs |
6ixtynin9 (R) (4 stars)
$24.99
It's taken five years for this Thai gangster movie to find distribution here. 6ixtynin9 describes what can happen when a box of money is inadvertently left outside the apartment of a recently fired clerk, Tum, who habitually flips the 6 on her door to 9. Instead of giving in to the threats of crooks and corrupt cops, she denies any knowledge of its existence. Watching Tum transform into a female Rambo is as wonderfully funny as it is gratuitously violent.
Lana's Rain (R) (3 stars)
$19.99
In its harrowing depiction of a Eastern European woman's search for America's streets of gold, Lana's Rain bears a striking resemblance to Al Pacino's Scarface. In both, criminality provides immigrants far more opportunities than old-fashioned hard work. Naïve villager Lana follows her older brother from the war-ravaged Balkans to Chicago, where he easily adapts to the American way of thug life.
BLUE DAY |
With news of the Sand Dollar's impending closure, the number of jazz and blues venues in Las Vegas falls to negative four. Here's how it will affect the city.
1. A couple less parking spots for Harleys
2. www.SandDollarBlues.com domain name available again
3. Norm will run this news as "a friend told me"
4. Bikers head for Forty Deuce and Tangerine to get their jazz trio fix
5. Having lost its home, the blues are seen under a bridge on Wilson Avenue and F Street
CD |
Quette Daddie (1.5 stars)
Reverse Psychology
I'm a gangsta rapper, he's a gangsta rapper, she's a gangsta rapper, wouldn't ya like to be a gangsta rapper, too? Unfortunately, Quette Daddie (pronounced "Cat Daddy") answers yes, delivering an 11-track CD that sounds much like what you'd expect from a gangsta rapper who earned his stripes on the mean streets of Utah. Another failing: the Daddie urges music critics to listen to the CD before rendering judgment, then blows his end of the bargain, offering the same hackneyed tripe—guns, drugs, sex, baby mama drama, the obligatory song about a lost flame—that every other Tom, Dick and 50 Cent passes off as lyricism. I'm tempted to call the United Nations and sponsor legislation making insipid thug rap (see MOP for the right way to do it) a Geneva Convention violation. Scofflaws would do time in the lyrical equivalent to Abu Ghraib, where they'd be forced to listen to real lyricists like Common, Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Pharoah Monche ...