Steve Friess
Story Archive
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As We See It
Grin and Luv-It
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 Does a Las Vegas neighborhood slam by The Office's Mindy Kaling really merit all the fuss (you know, the chick with the annoying voice)? Was the custard at least good?
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A&E
Don’t call it a downer!
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 Even at 81, Broadway legend and Phantom director Hal Prince has lost none of his enthusiasm for what he does.
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Film
When life isn’t a movie
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 Every article and interview available online refers to Ted V. Mikels as a savant of sorts. But there's a different story to tell. Ted V. Mikels is 80 years old and broke.
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LV Weekly
What did I just do that for?
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 My wild, wacky, journalistically complicated Michael Jackson benefit journey.
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Monte Carlo
A not-quite-so-transformative experience
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 Why the Monte Carlos’s stab at the top end with Hotel 32 comes off more as one giant copycat.
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Dining
Delicious experiment
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009 Why we hope a hotel executive’s decision to populate properties with locally based restaurants is a hit.
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As We See It
A riddle wrapped in ... Harrah’s?
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 There may be great stories about the Stage Door, but good luck finding them.
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As We See It
When the fun stops
Thursday, July 30, 2009 Somewhere along the way, all the reasons to love Sin City went bye-bye.
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Film
Film flam
Thursday, July 23, 2009 Lottery tickets, magic tunnels, scorching heat in January and other Vegas-movie flaws.
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Poker
Raise, fold ... Or tweet
Thursday, July 16, 2009 Twitter is giving new life to the World Series of Poker.
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As We See It
Bad things do come in threes
Thursday, July 9, 2009 A trio of the worst ideas in Vegas right now.
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Entertainment
Jackson’s comeback
Thursday, July 2, 2009 I know you felt it, too, so I’m just going to come right out and say it: Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music.
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Entertainment
LuPone’s showstopper
Thursday, June 25, 2009 When the Broadway diva chastised a texter, it highlighted problems with Vegas audiences.
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Entertainment
A fine restraint
Thursday, June 18, 2009 In New York and Los Angeles, when a major star drops dead of unknown causes, there is a repulsive ritual that takes place. In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices, we do things a little differently.
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Casinos
An easy target, a misguided notion
Thursday, June 11, 2009 Why the people of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, should be grateful for, not suspicious of, their new casino.
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Casino
The Anti-Wynn
Thursday, June 4, 2009 I was a bit confused when I showed up at the Treasure Island on Monday for lunch with its new owner, Phil Ruffin, and his assistant told me on the house phone to meet the Kansas billionaire at Francesco’s Pizzeria.
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television
Larger than life, perfect for Vegas
Thursday, May 28, 2009 Someone here needs to sign American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert right now
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Entertainment
Ten shows that you absolutely have to see (or send your visitors to see)
Thursday, May 21, 2009 One show that everyone should see? I get this question a lot. I get it from Facebook friends when they’re about to visit and you readers ask about once a week by e-mail.
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Issues
He walks alone
Thursday, May 14, 2009 Just a couple of days before one of the most important votes in the gay history of Nevada, David Parks stood, as he usually seems to, in the background.
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Entertainment
Danny Gans: 1956-2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009 How does someone become such a mammoth, wealthy star, entertain untold millions and still remain largely anonymous in the broader popular culture?
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Dining
Now we’re cooking
Thursday, April 30, 2009 Top Chef began filming Season 6 in Las Vegas on Monday. This could easily be the start of an economic recovery. It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.
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Dining
A rock and a Chinese place
Thursday, April 23, 2009 Sometime back in the 1990s, an eccentric fellow wanted to eat at a restaurant. He sent his advance team to scope out the place and its various exits, baffling the owners of the fine establishment.
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Entertainment
Funny while it lasted
Thursday, April 16, 2009 There was never any remote possibility that Nevada was going to impose a tax on sex acts at legal brothels. But it still gave attendees at public hearings an excuse to talk about the good stuff: whores!
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Economy
Building block
Thursday, April 9, 2009 The competition was trying to be dignified, generous, sympathetic. “Yes, I think it would be devastating to Las Vegas for MGM to fail,” said Jan Laverty Jones, senior vice president at Harrah’s and former Vegas mayor.
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Casino
When the fun stops
Thursday, April 2, 2009 Having evidently learned a little something from the hundreds of acrobats who perform astonishing death-defying feats nightly in its Vegas resorts, MGM Mirage last week leaped headlong into the open air.
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Casinos
Losers' Las Vegas
Thursday, March 26, 2009 I’m a loser. I lose things. All the time. So far today alone I misplaced one of the dog’s leashes, my wallet and my wedding ring. And it’s only 1 p.m.
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Entertainment
Catch the rising stars
Thursday, March 19, 2009 Erich Bergen has one of those clean-cut young faces that make you want to pinch his cheeks and mess up his hair.
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M Resort
M is for Minutiae
Thursday, March 12, 2009 For the nearly 30 years Walt, an 83-year-old retired doctor, and Terry, a 65-year-old travel agent, have lived in Vegas, they’ve had a charming tradition: They eat breakfast at every new hotel-casino on the first Saturday it’s open.
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Entertainment
Real magic
Thursday, March 5, 2009 Forget for a moment whether the white tiger on the stage really was Montecore. I did. It was the only way to take in one of the most genuinely emotional events in the history of Las Vegas.
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Entertainment
Sun dance festival
Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 In a dance studio south of the Strip earlier this month, a long table of casting personnel sat at attention in a large mirrored room where an impeccably built young dancer named Mas slithered about in nothing but extremely tight blue underwear.
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Politics
Is it Oscar vs. Obama or Oscar vs. Oscar
Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 There is an axiom I’m sure you’re all very familiar with that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. It is, it often seems, a central and guiding principle of one Oscar B. Goodman.
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Entertainment
How Danny got his groove back
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 Something very odd happened at Wynn. Danny Gans, the brunt of my jokes and my ire for several years now, made me laugh. A lot.
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Entertainment
Yes, Las Vegas, there is homophobia
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 A few weeks ago, the Review-Journal’s Doug Elfman wrote something shocking. Or, rather, it was shocking to me, and it was even more shocking when it drew no more attention and, thus, was not shocking to anyone else in the national media.
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Economy
Si, vamanos
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 "You know,” Michael Weaver says to me at the tail end of a lunch appointment that has been filled largely with gloom about the state of the Vegas economy, “there actually is one segment of the population that is actually up over the year before.”
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History
Lawyers, guns ... and money
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 A legitimate mob museum at the beautiful, restored historic old federal building Downtown would be an enormous success for Las Vegas.
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Entertainment
The headliner that got away
Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009 I am one of just 70 people packed into an air-conditioning-less basement at an “experimental” theater in SoHo watching a gargantuan, nearly naked gender-bender stomping through a miniature set of New York City, à la Godzilla.
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Entertainment
One hot "Mamma!"
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 There is a nasty rumor going around that as the last numbers began to swell through the Mandalay Bay Theater on Sunday at the final performance of Mamma Mia!, I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket to dab away some precipitation flowing from my eyes.
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Entertainment
Can you feel the length tonight?
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 My 9-year-old niece sat next to me at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City, utterly enthralled. Her widened eyes were glued to the visual feast before her, the mammoth puppets and the ebullient, multiethnic cast performing colorful, energetic song-and-dance numbers, the Elton John/Tim Rice score.
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Encore
In the margins
Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008 A few weeks ago, I was staring at Steve Wynn while he went on about his theories as to why the economy was in the shitter when I noticed something far more interesting to me. “Your eyes are sparkling,” I interrupted,
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Business
What really happens in Vegas ...
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 If I were an investigative reporter working for one of the local daily newspapers, near the top of my list for digging would be the complex, expensive and probably unprecedented relationship between R&R Partners and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
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Crime
A real magic trick
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 Accused in October 2007 of raping a 21-year-old Seattle woman whom he allegedly picked out of his audience and lured to his Bahamian getaway for a sexual liaison, David Copperfield underwent media scrutiny, a FBI raid and grand jury investigation. The thing that happened next is the most important: nothing.
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Casino
18 is enough
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008 Oh God, will this laptop keyboard spontaneously combust if I even type such shameful, forbidden words?—lower the legal age for casino play to 18.
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Barack Obama
Elaine Wynn, embracing change
Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008 What was the secret weapon that won over Elaine Wynn? Michelle. The wife. Elaine Wynn was so impressed that she found herself bucking her entire industry and her irate husband and actively working on behalf of a Democratic presidential candidate after a lifetime of voting only for Republicans.
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Poker
Bad Beat
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 Peter Eastgate’s cheering section broke out into jubilant Danish song—it sounded a bit like the Oompa-Loompa song in a different melody—when he laid out an ace of diamonds for a straight that beat opponent Ivan Demidov’s two pair.
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Entertainment
What happens with Wanda ...
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 This column was supposed to be about Criss Angel’s new theater. In short, the theater is terrible. So instead, this column is about Wanda.
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Bellagio
No ado about something
Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 As momentous occasions go, this one should have been a big deal. And yet, until a friend who works there mentioned it last week, I had completely forgotten it was the Bellagio's 10th birthday.
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The Strip Sense
Still the defiant one
Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 You know the formula: A star hits it big, looms large in our collective consciousness, struggles with his fill-in-the-blank inner demons, hits rock bottom, comes to terms with his problems, triumphs and enjoys either a resurgence or at least a peaceful dotage.
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Entertainment
Jerry-rigged Vegas
Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008 It’s not being billed as such, but there’s a concert this weekend that could very well redefine Vegas entertainment (and bring The Jerry Springer Show to town in the process).
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Real Estate
Flower Tower
Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 Andrew Fonfa doesn’t want me to write this. He knows I have to, he knows I want to, but he also wants us to know that everything in this column is entirely speculative.
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OJ Simpson
He Dunne it
Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 As recently as 10 days ago, I was just like most of you out there. I had absolutely, positively, 100 percent no interest in whatever tawdry affair would unfold in a criminal trial that was news solely because it involved one Orenthal James Simpson.