'The Incredibly Bold, Audaciously Cheesy, Jaw-Droppingly Vegasified, Billion-Dollar Glam-Rock Makeover of Coney Island.' ... And That's Just the Headline.
It seems that Las Vegas' usefulness as a point of reference—sometimes kindly, sometimes not—is alive and well and kicking in the current issue of New York magazine. A piece by Greg Sargent, examining the ambitious plans of a developer (the Bugsy of Brooklyn) to reinvigorate the beloved but decrepit landmark, Coney Island—via a massive makeover of megaresorts (with a blimp landing pad), stores, rides and the famed boardwalk and beachfront—invokes our sacred name repeatedly. Apparently, we're ... an inspiration:
• "Developer Joe Sitt has been quietly buying up prime Coney Island acreage with the intention of building a flamboyant cosmopolis that would make Vegas seem tame. And it just might work."
• (Sitt): "'Imagine something like the Bellagio hotel right now—just stop and see it. ... The lights. The action. The vitality. The people. ... We wanna evoke the same feeling you get when you're in Vegas. It's exciting, it's illuminating, it's sexy.'"
• "It's tempting to see Sitt as a kind of Coney Island Bugsy Siegel, sans the wiseguy ties (see, didn't we tell ya?) ... the notorious gangster who reimagined a grubby little town in the Nevada desert as the gambling mecca of the United States. 'I feel like him,' Sitt says. 'Bugsy Siegel went into a town and there were a couple of small gambling casinos. His dream was to take the inspiration from what was there before and magnify it. Give it more variety. Give it choices ... That's exactly the turnaround opportunity that we see here in Coney Island!'"
Good luck, Coney. Have a hot dog on us. Now, if we could just import a boardwalk for ourselves. And a beach to go with it.
King Me
As if it hadn't already become the NFL of gambling games, poker will play a star in role in King of Vegas, a Spike TV series described in a press release as a "decathlon of gambling," where players "must not only master poker, but a full spectrum of casino games including blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, among others." The winner receives $1 million in cash and the title of world's greatest gambler. The weekly series is scheduled to debut on in early 2006.
Is Sean Hannity Editing the R-J?
Readers of the Review-Journal this week probably spit their coffee after reading the review of Dolly Parton's concert at the House of Blues on October 1.
The reviewer gave the country icon a B- for her performance, but then took the moronic step of grading her audience a D. What was wrong with the crowd? Well, according to the anonymous (that's right no one wants credit for this one) reviewer, the show attracted a "unique audience:"
"For every straight couple sporting cowboy hats there was a gay couple holding one another as they sang along. I'm not sure there have been this many ecstatic gay men together in one room since Cher retired."
Hey, that sounds like anonymous bigotry to us. Hmm?
Salmon: Not Just Seafood, but the Key To Integrating Nevada's Education System?
"Higher education needs to move outside its ivory towers and forge strong bonds with its K-12 counterparts ..." So says the brochure for a seminar in Salmon, British Columbia.
According to the Regents Review, published by the Nevada System of Higher Education's Board of Regents, this theme emerged from the three-day Salmon Seminar to Desolation Sound, a small coastal inlet. The 12th annual event drew 70 people, including higher education system chancellor Jim Rogers, 11 deans and associate deans (among them, U.C. Berkeley School of Law Dean Chris Edley Jr.), 10 college presidents (including University of Southern California chief Steven Sample), six trustees, five foundation chairs and directors, two bankers and former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Richard Gephardt. (The article doesn't note if there were any partridge in a pear tree sightings.)
While fun was apparently had ("when a guide yelled 'Fish on,' coffee went flying and chase broke loose as people scrambled to their positions"), save for one example on integrating K-12 and higher education, the brochure lacks specifics as to whether anything was accomplished in the melding of K-12 and higher ed. (It noted a partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department where "campus officers expanded their patrol areas to the residences bordering USC and area 911 calls went directly to the campus police, cutting the average response time from 15 minutes to one minute" and giving local principals "direct access to money from USC").
Mind you, this isn't a new topic.
Back in 2001, the state entered a pilot program with American Diploma Project, K-12 educators, university officials and the Nevada Manufacturers' Association to create new standards for math and English. Three years earlier, the University and Community College System of Nevada and the state Board of Education signed the Nevada Collaborative for Academic Success, establishing a K-16 Council foster cooperative efforts between K-12 and the higher education system.
All in all, the state's education hawks have had plenty of time to move from rhetoric to action. Here's hoping that more solutions will be fished out of the Salmon Summit.
Well, At Least There Isn't a Drag Race
Activities at this month's Oktoberfest celebration at the Mount Charleston Hotel include both a beer drinking competition and a wood-chopping competition. The champion woodchopper wins a Black & Decker Saw. No word on what the beer drinking champ gets, but it's probably wise to keep it away from whomever wins the saw.
All I Want For Christmas is A Small, Inexpensive Gathering with Elton John and 500 of My Closest Friends
Sir Elton and Neiman Marcus have teamed up to offer a private party for you and your friends for $1.5 million, to be donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The luxury retailer's CEO Brendan Hoffman says, "There's something for everyone." And something else for everybody else.
Don't Mess With This Rock, Buddy
Here's what peevishness comes up on the site hardrocklasvegas.com: "Hard Rock Cafe has decided they OWN all things to do with Hard Rock ...
"According to Webster's Dicitonary I am not sure this is true:
"Hard rock (noun). Loud agressive rock music; a form of rock music that has simple lyrics and a strong insistent beat, and that is usually very loud..."
The web writer goes on to say that he's allegedly losing his domain at the hands of the actual Hard Rock .
"They say they own all things HARD ROCK ..."
Um, yeah. Get another name.