With Michael Jackson a free man (and new golfing buddy with OJ Simpson), it's only a matter of time before he's contracted to come to Vegas, and rumor-dispelling statements aside, the Weekly is sure he's headed for Wynn. Mostly because the liability insurance would be too high at the kid-friendly Circus Circus and the Imperial Palace already has a Jacko. But the big question is, what songs will be part of his 90-minute show? Here's a partial list: "Bet It," "Black or Red," "Don't Stop 'Til You're Broke Enough," "Man in the Mirror (and the Eye in the Sky)," and "Wanna Be Bettin' Somethin'" are good choices. We predict the Gambling Commission won't allowed him to perform "Cheater" and that he'll end the show with his own rendition of "Thank Heaven for Little Boys."
DVDs |
Big Meat Eater (NR) (2 stars)
$19.98
Somewhere, there's a festival for movies that are so amateurishly made and aesthetically cheesy they're actually great fun to watch. My nominee for an opening-night musical would be Chris Windsor's delightfully tasteless Big Meat Eater. The schlock-opera bears comparison with the original Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Plan 9 From Outer Space, in that it imagines a nerdy butcher who, with his mammoth, fez-wearing assistant, stumbles on a way to turn discarded meat scraps into fuel for flying saucers. The songs may be silly but they're reasonably tuneful and certainly no worse than those in countless musicals that actually found their way to Broadway.
The Nomi Song: The Klaus Nomi Odyssey (NR) (4 stars)
$19.95
Try to imagine Maria Callas and Elvis Presley performing a duet on Lou Christie's golden oldie, "Lightning Strikes" and you'll have some idea of the unique vocal styling of Klaus Nomi, a performance artist who looked like a UFO pilot and sang like an angel. Andrew Horn's splendid documentary portrait not only examines the German-born singer's brief period of stardom among New York's terminally hip glitterati in the late-'70s and early-'80s, but also lets us see the man hidden behind the makeup and costumes. Bonus material includes archival performances, including Nomi's appearance with fellow space oddity David Bowie on Saturday Night Live in 1979.
LOCAL CD |
Spoaty Mac (3.5 stars)
Spoaty Life
With the Chapter becoming the first Vegas rap collective to generate sustained mainstream heat aand worldwide distribution, the local rap race is on. On Spoaty Life, James Allen (a.k.a. Spoaty Mac) makes a convincing case he should run the second leg. His 20 tracks blend lyricism, serviceable beats and wry humor into one of the most complete rap albums to come out of Vegas. "Change Da Game" borders on great and "Sticc-N-Move" is what a Vegas rap collabo should sound like. Even though he falters slightly in the CD's homestretch, Allen proves he has what it takes to win the rap race.
Magazine Note |
We extend a belated Vegas welcome to 944 magazine, a glossy publication with offices in Phoenix and San Diego. Now that that's out of the way, far be it from us to throw the first stone when it comes to barely-clad models on covers and silly stories inside ... but we'll throw the second and third ones.
170 pages in Vol. 4, issue 6
135 photos showing cleavage, not counting ads
24% print editorial-to-advertising ratio
1 photos of Mayor Oscar Goodman
0 photos of Deputy Mayor Steve Wynn
Most frightening quote:
944: "And when does your album come out?"
Paris Hilton: "In August."
DA DOUG |
We were going to report this earlier, but we had more important news to get out of the way first, such as interviews with Club Jenna girls, Peanut Butter & Jelly Club reviews and the closing of Pink E's. But now that we've cleared our plate, it's time to let Weekly readers know that the Review Journal's Doug Elfman, the music critic country fans love to hate, will be leaving Vegas soon for the Windy City. As reported by the Chicago Sun Times, the city's other paper, way back in, oh, late May (hey, we said we've been busy!), Elfman, age 38, height about 6 feet , will write reviews for the Sun Times about WGNTV, your premier Chicago WB station; WFLD, Fox-32; and who could forget WLS-TV7? The paper's editor in chief, John Barron, was quoted by one of his own staff as saying, "Doug has a unique voice that Chicagoans are going to want to—and need to—tune in to before grabbing the remote." Folks throughout the Chicagoland area who have been waiting to grab their remotes for years breathed a collective sigh of relief.