Mash-Up

Here at the Weekly, we're always on the lookout for happy hours. We'll even take happy minutes when our schedules are especially busy.

While two-for-one drinks are pretty standard across town, at Max's Cafe in the Desert Passage (the mall attached to Planet Aladdin), you can belly up to the bar and get three-for-one cocktails and glasses of wine. With that sort of offer, it's probably a good idea that you can order food from their low-priced menu.

Not to be outdone (and we're not implying there's any direct competition), Treasures Gentleman's Club and Steakhouse has an even better deal: free drinks and free food. Between 4 and 6 p.m., all well drinks and domestic beers are free while calls and top-shelf drinks are two-for-one from 4 until 8 p.m. As for the food, c'mon, they've got their own steakhouse so you know the buffet's going to be above par, with meatballs, pizza, chicken wings, fruit, cheese and even pot-stickers. With all the hard-earned cash you're saving, there's no excuse not to take advantage of the $1 lap dances or tipping out at the club's new fourth stage.

If free drinks and lap dances aren't your thing, try heading Downtown to Sidebar. The swank cocktail lounge adjacent to Triple George hosts a wine- tasting on the second Wednesday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., for $25. And keeping up the good fight on the happy-hour front, you can indulge in three glasses of selected red and white wine for $10 during their happy hour, 4 to 6 p.m.

Cigars For Everyone

The club industry just keeps growing its ranks. Our congratulations go out to the House of Blues' marketing and publicity manager, Tanya Tumminia, on the birth of her son, Trevor Joseph, on June 20, and to Voodoo DJ John Vegas, on the birth of his daughter, Reese Madisen, on June 26. Any Mommy and Me playtimes with these two are bound to be noisy.

Kitchen Counter, Wednesday, 10 p.m., Local Ladies Free

It's said imitation is the highest form of flattery. If that's true, our head just grew three sizes. Mark Christopher, who spins under the name DJ Kram, has an amazingly great but still fake Las Vegas Weekly DJ Trading Card on his MySpace site. Our rules for the trading cards are that the DJs have a club residency and that they be local. While the Hawaiian-born Kram lives here now, he's only spinning in various locales in his own home. We're afraid we can't count that. So any club managers reading this, check the kid out at
www.myspace.com/pelukram and get back to us.

Chubby Chasers Unite

If you were at Valley View and Twain on Wednesday and thought you felt an earthquake, you weren't too far off the mark. June 28 saw the launch of Striptease Gentleman's Club's Big Ass Service Industry Party, hosted by Larry "2 Tons of Fun" Murray and featuring Big Butt magazine's July centerfold Christina and the Hot Sexy Plumpers. The fun gets started every Wednesday at 11 p.m., with free admission for service industry workers and $10 cover for everyone else.

Hot Summer in the City

Can't get enough music in Vegas? July 22 will see Giant Village take over four blocks of downtown Los Angeles with five stages of artists. Confirmed are Deep Dish, Paul Oakenfold, Christopher Lawrence, Crystal Method, Digweed, Mark Farina, Marques Wyatt and many more. Tickerts are $75 in advance, $125 for VIP, and available at www.giantvillage.com.

Ingredients

2 ounces Ketel One Citroen Vodka

0.5 ounces blue curacao

0.5 ounces Dekuyper Island

Blue Pucker

1 ounce pineapple juice

4 ounces lemonade

Garnish with cherry and lemon twist

This drink derives its name from the feeling audiences get after seeing the Blue Man Group. It's tasty and goes great with Twinkies. Our one word of advice: Refrain from drumming it with the swizzle stick. Your neighbors will thank you.