X-Rated performer and American LowLife member Morgan Ray will teach classes involving topics on sexuality and the adult industry twice weekly at Las Vegas swingers club The Green Door. The first class, with guest Randy West, will take place May 17.

"They're for advice and entertainment," Ray told XBIZ, an online source for the adult industry. "It's about sex. It feels good, there's nothing wrong about it. It's about breaking the chains of your sexual inhibitions."

Ray has a master's degree in psychology from Argosy University in Atlanta. She has been performing in adult videos for about a year, and has appeared in 45 videos. "It was a natural progression, going from psychology to porn," Ray said. "And now I'm coming full circle to teaching and having sex, two of my passions."

More on Ray's Classes (more)

This won't appeal to everyone--and probably not to many at all--but if you are a sports better and you wager on our "national pastime", this is an extremely informative article on where to place your baseball bets.

Jeff Haney, of the Las Vegas Sun, has been excellent over the years in examining the Nevada sports betting industry and is a very straight shooter when it comes to telling the wagering public what's going on behind the sports book counter. He even gets the resorts pissed at him now and then and one of his recent articles got the attention of the Nevada Gaming Commission, causing them to take a look at a potentially unethical situation.

Anyway, if you bet on baseball or would like to give it a try while you are here, read "Baseball lines not created equal"--it can save you some money.

Note: Did you know that you can place a sports bet while you are in Las Vegas and, should you win, mail in your tickets from out-of-state to collect? Yep, that's perfectly legal...

While most of us weren't around Vegas--or around at all--when Las Vegas Park was in town (well, maybe that ol' coot Mr. Admin was), at one point in the mid-50's there were big plans to build one of the best horse-racing tracks in the country.
And, after this delay, that scam and a kickback or two the $4.5 million track was actually built and opened.
Here's the interesting history of yet another person who came to Las Vegas with big dreams and, instead, crashed and burned.

The Land The Track Was On (more)

We had high hopes for another yearly music festival here in Las Vegas. Back in the early to mid-90's the Grateful Dead sold out an annual weekend event with more than 80 thousand people attending each year. Then Jerry Garcia's "Touch of Grey" became more than just a touch and with the band's frontman passing, so did the event.
In 2005, something called Vegoose came along with a more modern brand of music and we thought maybe we had our music festival once again.
Vegoose brought such artists as the Killers, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Dave Matthews, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Cat Power and Jack Johnson to Vegas for events at both Sam Boyd Stadium and places like The Joint and House of Blues.
But now it seems Vegoose has flown the coop (do they keep geese in coops?). It's been announced that, due to declining attendance, Las Vegas Events (the Vegas producers) has decided not to continue with the festival. No word on what the NYC co-producers are going to do now.

The show Oprah Winfrey shot this past weekend in front of 4,000 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace was full of all sorts of tidbits including Tina Turner alluding to Oprah's grumpier moods, Tina and Cher performing together (with Oprah joining in), a bunch of Tina and Cher impersonators, Oprah's love for Tom Cruise and her mention of using a bidet in her high-roller suite at Caesars.

The show airs May 8th but many of the more interesting bits won't make the final cut.

We always wondered if Steve Wynn would leave the golf course intact after he bought the old Desert Inn property. Somehow, we just knew he would find a more profitable use for it.

Steve Wynn revealed his grand plan for the golf course land at Wynn Las Vegas last week, and the message is clear: he's going after Sheldon Adelson's domination of the convention business. Wynn said he is planning to add two hotels as bookends for "probably the most spectacular meeting and convention center in the world."

The addition of 5,200 hotel rooms will give Wynn 10,000 rooms on the former Desert Inn property, 1.5 million square feet of convention space and a lake twice the size of Bellagio's dancing fountains lake "with special effects" . The exhibition hall and ballroom will be on the lake.

Adelson's Las Vegas Sands properties, which include the Palazzo, The Venetian and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, offers 2.25 million square feet of meeting space and has been named the MEGACENTER.

Addendum: Another article on Wynn's convention plans.

A passenger on an ATA flight got into some hot water while trying to use his iPhone as a device to watch a movie, even though the phone was switched to "airplane mode".
With iPhones becoming so popular, we just thought we'd let you know about this little incident so it doesn't mess up your trip to Sin City.

From Norm, the R-J gossip dude, who attended the recent taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show here in Las Vegas:

"It may take some creative editing when Tina Turner announces her final tour on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on May 8. Early in the taping Saturday before a Colosseum crowd of about 3,000 at Caesars Palace, Cher, the first guest, let the cat out of the bag when she let the tour news slip. Later in the taping, it appeared a replacement segment was being shot with Turner so it would appear she was breaking the news.

The Oprah show airs May 8, two days after Cher opens her three-year, 200-show headliner residency deal at Caesars Palace. Turner, 68, told Oprah that she was making her final tour, starting in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 1. She retired from major tours after her "Twenty Four Seven" world tour that grossed $80 million.

Turner said she's been getting antsy to return to the stage, but didn't get serious about it until she had a conversation with Italian film icon Sophia Loren in Milan, Italy. "She said 'When are you going back to work?'" Turner told Oprah, "You can't forget the fun, the lights and the people."

Turner sang "Nutbush City Limits," an ode to her hometown in Tennessee, and teamed up with Cher to bring the house down with "Proud Mary" at the end of the taping."

I guess we can blame it on Marie's appearance on Dancing with the Stars but Donny & Marie are experiencing a renaissance of late and that is translating into an extended run in Las Vegas.

Donny Osmond and sister Marie Osmond will perform in a new variety show that will begin performances on September 9 at the Flamingo-Las Vegas hotel. The show, to be presented by Danny Gans and Chip Lightman, will play 26 weeks over an eight-month period.

Donny Osmond has appeared on Broadway in Little Johnny Jones and Beauty and the Beast. Marie Osmond starred on Broadway in The King and I and toured nationally in The Sound of Music. She recently appeared on the ABC-TV series Dancing with the Stars.

The duo are best known for their self-titled TV variety show that ran 1976-1979. Tickets, which go on sale on April 28, will range from $85-$115.

We knew you'd want a heads up on the ticket info...

Las Vegas continues to feel the impact of the slumping economy as it posted its fourth month-over-month decline since November, despite record attendance of nearly 145,000 at a huge construction show in March.

We always like to hear the stories of the new and possibly up-and-coming acts in town. Ya never know if they will be the next Danny Gans or Lance Burton, performers who started on the bottom rungs in Las Vegas and climed their way up. Gans started at the Stratosphere and Burton at the Tropicana (as a short routine in Folies Bergere) so maybe talented impressionist Tom Stevens' show at the lowly Riviera will propel him to Strip stardom.

Stevens does interpretations of more than 100 entertainers, uses 53 voices in his show and, while his personal favorite is Perry Como his best is Dean Martin, hence the title of his show: “An Evening with Dean and Friends”.
A look at Tom Stevens

Former employees of famous Strip magicians Siegfried and Roy got together and wrote a tell-all book about their ex-employees called "The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy: How the Tiger Kings Tamed Las Vegas".
It doesn't appear to be a glowing tribute...

A reviewer on Amazon.com writes: Siegfried and Roy "...are so bizarre, you cant help but be interested. Its kind of like watching a car crash."

From the NY Post:
"Siegfried and Roy were real cutups when it came to disposing of their wild pets' carcasses. In his upcoming tell-all, "The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy," the flamboyant Vegas animal trainers' ex-security chief of 20 years, Jim Mydlach, recalls that when their beloved tiger Sahra died of kidney failure, Roy demanded she be cremated. "By this time, Sahra had gone into rigor mortis, so there was no hope of stuffing the huge animal into the tiny furnace. But Roy . . . didn't want to hear it," Mydlach writes. "He wanted the cat cremated and brought back to the house as soon as possible, and he insisted the ashes had to still be warm when he got them." With that, the performers' vet told Mydlach, "Cut her up." He "dismembered the tiger's corpse, cutting off its legs . . . one of the worst experiences of [my] life." The tiger's ashes went into Roy's private collection. "He had shelves of urns lined up in his bedroom, each containing the ashes of his dogs and big cats," Mydlach writes."

More peeks under the covers (literally): (more)

In these days of tight financing, it may be just another pipe dream but the Las Vegas Planning Commission is taking the request for a 61-story, 2,500-room hotel on the northeast corner of Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway seriously.

"It is interesting because it has been somewhat stealth," said Scott Adams, director of the city's Office of Business Development. "It looks like a really good project. It really appears to have some strong backing behind it," he said.

Will this be the development that downtown needs to jump start the step-child area of Vegas or is this just another one of those Sin City mega-sized dreams that never materialize?

We'll be following this one...

If you want to catch some up-and-coming unsigned rock bands, check out the Live Indie Rock Wars over at Montelago Village at Lake Las Vegas this weekend.
Thousands of bands competed across North America over the past several months for a chance to win $50,000, recording time and a media promotions package.
The top 20 bands square off Friday on the floating stage at Lake Las Vegas. Judges pick the 10 finalists, who’ll compete there again Saturday afternoon.

The LowLife Event Listing

First they weren't here. Then, maybe they were here. Then there was a fuzzy photo of one of them so, at that point, officially and with much fanfare and awe there were really here. And now they are gone, replaced by the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The F-117A Nighthawk warplane, better known as the cool-looking "Stealth", started as a top secret project in Southern Nevada (Nellis Air Force Base) where there's lots of room to fly test runs (in Area 51).

Eventually, to counter claims of alien spaceship sightings, the Air Force publicly unveiled the unique-shaped, radar-avoiding miracle everyone called the Stealth, at Nellis in front of 100,000 spectators and media from around the world. Its first combat assignment was in Panama (of all places) in 1988 and had big roles in both Iraqi wars (1,200 missions). Now, after only 20 years, the plane is being mothballed. Normally, planes are retired at the Air Force's boneyard outdside of Tucson, AZ, but since these are special planes with special technology they will be de-winged and stored in classified hangars near Tonapah, NV (next to all the alien craft, we assume).

The Last Flight
Only 59 Stealths Were Made. 7 crashed (one was shot down over Yugoslavia) and 52 will be housed in Tonapah.
Some Stealth Memories

While Wal-Mart fights it out with Big Oil for top spot on the Fortune 500 list for corporations (in reality, it's the non-alliterative Fortune 1000 list), there are several Nevada-based corps vying for positions on down in the rankings. These include Harrah's, MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts. More on the Fortune 1000, er, ah, Fortune 500 list for corporations.

On the Forbes list of richest individuals, Southern Nevada did ok with several new members but most of the top Vegans slid a bit, including Las Vegas Sands' Sheldon Adelson, who was knocking on the top spot a couple of years ago but is now in the 12th position.

The man who has made billions off his musicals (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera), Andrew Lloyd Webber, was in town to mentor the final six "American Idol" contestants who will sing his songs on tonight's broadcast, which will include footage from the tutoring session taped on the Phantom Theatre stage. Lloyd Webber will join them to perform on Wednesday's results show.
A quick interview with the maestro which includes some insight into his sequel for Phantom of the Opera (yes, a sequel).

Even if you're not a hard core Star Trek fan, you might enjoy Star Trek: The Experience at the Hilton. The attraction, tucked away in a space-themed corner of the casino, beams visitors to the world of the Starfleet Federation, offering two adventures for the astronomical price of $42.99. The first, Klingon Encounter, is an 18-minute motion-simulator ride; the second, Borg Invasion 4-D, is an 18-minute interactive show.

Afterwards you should head to Quark's bar and grab a pint of Romulan Ale, a specially brewed blue beer, and talk to "real", live Ferengis and other alien bar flies.

A look at the entire unworldy experience.

It's double diva time -- or, more precisely, triple diva time -- when "The Oprah Winfrey Show" makes a pilgrimage to Caesars Palace's Colosseum Saturday for a special audience with new headliner Cher (who opens May 6) and rock queen Tina Turner.

The made-in-Vegas hour, which wil air May 8, features interviews and performances with the dynamic Cher 'n' Tina duo; it's the first time Winfrey has brought her syndicated talkfest to Las Vegas since Celine Dion opened the Colosseum in 2003.

KLAS-TV, Channel 8, "Oprah's" morning TV home in Las Vegas, will give away 50 pairs of tickets during its morning newscast Monday through Wednesday; click on www.lasvegasnow.com for details. Select tickets also are available at Oprah.com; click on "Be on the Show."

In the old days, the Horseshoe Casino used to be where all the hard core poker players went to test their mettle. We used to go there and have a cheap late-night steak & eggs breakfast and to get our picture taken in front of a million dollars in $10,000 dollar bills displayed in the lobby. The World Series of Poker (W.S.O.P.) used to be held at the casino which helped the Horseshoe name to be known far and wide.

But the property fell into neglect as owner Ted Binion (son of founder Benny Binion) had lots of run-ins with the Nevada Gaming Commission due to an alleged association with organized crime and got deeper and deeper into drugs, both on the using and trafficking side.

Eventually, the worn down property, which by this time included the old Mint Hotel, was sold to Harrah’s who stripped the casino of its name, took the W.S.O.P. to the Rio and sold the rest.

Enter Terry Caudill, owner of the Four Queens, another downtown property. In 2003 Caudill bought the Four Queens for $20 mil., invested another $20 mil. In upgrades and more than doubled the annual cash flow. Now that he’s purchased Binion’s (the Horseshoe name isn’t his) for $32 mil., can he work his magic once again? We hope so as we’d love to see downtown return to its glory days but Caudill sure has a lot of work to do…

No, it's not the name of a new kung fu movie (although it would be a good title) but "yes, Las Vegas is getting a liger, potentially the most terrifying hybrid to stride the Strip since French-Canadian singer Celine Dion" (we liked that quote for some reason).

A liger is an offspring of a male lion and a tigress which grows larger than either of it's parents--up to 1,000 pounds. It's also Napoleon Dynamite's favorite animal, in case you were wondering.

Tilli, the liger in Dirk Arthur's magic act "Xtreme Magic" at the Tropicana, takes the stage for a few seconds each show. Tilli is only 6 months old (85 pounds) so expect both his body and his participation in the magic show to grow in the future.

One of the nicest gentleman's clubs in town, Scores-Las Vegas, has been purchased by Rick's Cabaret International, a Houston-based adult nightclub giant, according to the Houston Business Journal. Rick's is paying DI Food & Beverage of Las Vegas $16 million in cash and $5 million in convertible debentures for the 25,000 square foot club. The deal is set to close June 10.

As part of the acquisition Rick’s Cabaret also acquires an option to buy the property on which the club is located, just off the Las Vegas Strip. The purchase would bring to 18 the number of clubs owned and operated by the company, including the recent acquisition of clubs in Philadelphia and Dallas.

It's a good thing Wynn doesn't ask our advice as we would have vetoed this one. The extremely popular and critically acclaimed show "Monty Python's Spamalot" will close at Wynn on July 13 of this year after 500 shows and, once the theater has been converted, Danny Gans will replace the Python gang.

Gans started at the Stratosphere in '96, went to the Rio shortly thereafter and then to the Mirage in 2000, landing a mega-million dollar deal from Steve Wynn. His act is very safe, politically and religiously correct (he has a Christian album, preaches a bit during his show) and we always felt he was better suited for Branson than Vegas.

We thought Wynn was taking a cool chance with Spamalot and were happy that something with an irreverent edge could succeed. And now it's being replaced by Danny Gans?? So much for irreverence...

Ah, but we're LowLifes--whata we know?

"Ultra Pool"? Uh oh, here comes another term that will probably stick in the Las Vegas marketing vocabulary. Wet Republic, the new 53,000 square foot aquatic and nightlife experience is opening this month at the MGM and they claim it will re-define "daylife".

There are eight separate pools and spas including the only two saltwater pools on the Strip. There's a 2,500 sq. foot ultralounge (of course) and 4,100 sq. foot sunning deck which will transform into a stage for concerts and events. Well, I guess "ultra pool" is a good description for this monster.

There are also ultramodern (they said it, not me) bungalows with--get this--a "king-sized day bed, teakwood furniture, giant flat screen TV, video game console with the latest games, DVD library, fully stocked mini fridge, ceiling fan, telephone, personal safe and more. Complimentary Wi-Fi will be offered throughout WET REPUBLIC." LowLifes will like this: "Sheer drapery will offer optional seclusion for moments of privacy."

We have some photos! (inside) (thanks VegasSag!)

The Entire Press Release about Wet Republic (more)

While Las Vegas may be one of the few cities not looking for tourist dollars from families, there's still plenty of things to do should you find your LowLife self in the midst of under-aged munchkins. This article gives all sorts of suggestions on non-sinful things to do in Sin City.

While it's legal in rural parts of the state, prostitution in Nevada cities with populations above 400,000 is illegal. Of course, as we all know, it's a very flourishing trade here in Sin City and our beloved mayor is all for the concept of legalizing the business.

It is estimated that there are as many as 10,000 prostitutes operating illegally in Las Vegas, in an industry that may be worth as much as $6 billion a year.

Mayor Oscar Goodman thinks it should be legal. "It's disingenuous when people say they don't want to legalise it," says Goodman. "Right now it's uncontrolled and unregulated. There's no check and balance as far as the women's health is concerned and legal brothels could be an important revenue-raising device for the city," he says.

Of course, there are religious groups and others who disagree so it'll probably never happen but Oscar keeps trying..

The entire article...

If you're a rock 'n' roller and are having trouble getting your fix of the likes of Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Foreigner, Journey and Deep Purple you might head over to Sam's Town and catch a very talented cover band called Strange Brew.

Featuring top notch musicians, several of which have actually toured with the classic rock groups whose songs they play, Strange Brew strives to play each song as if it were the original group itself playing the tune, complete with sound and mannerisms.

Check 'em out the next couple of Friday's and Saturday's At Roxy's.

Remember The Men's Club, perhaps the classiest of the gentlemen's clubs in town? It had an excellent gourmet restaurant and also a cool sushi bar plus an opulent interior (although we thought the layout kinda sucked). Anyway, it closed several months ago and the property was purchased by Station Casinos. The rumor was that the place was going to be torn down and turned into a hotel/condo/casino complex.

Well, now we've learned that the land has been leased from Station Casinos and that Badda Bing Gentleman's Club will inhabit the space with a grand opening on April 24th.

You can RSVP for the event by sending them a note at the e-mail address in the LowLife Event Listings. Tell 'em American LowLife sent ya...

You may not have heard of Barbara Mikkelson but if you've ever gone to the urban legend-debunking site Snopes.com then you've read her work. Mikkelson spends her time checking out all those often-ridiculous e-mails that get passed around which claim there will be a tax on e-mails, that Proctor & Gamble is a satanic organization and that Bill Gates did this or that evil thing (regarding Vista: it's all true!).
She also checks out the urban myths associated with Las Vegas including these on Snopes.com: A woman is electrocuted while walking on the Strip (true); the winner of Megabucks' largest jackpot died a horrible death (false); a woman takes her choking dog to the veterinarian, who finds the fingers of a burglar in the pet's throat (false).
More on Las Vegas urban legends.

We've just added a new feature to AmericanLowLife.com and it's called InPlay. InPlay simply means you are active and in the game (the lifestyle game).
More on InPlay (more)

The Palms Hotel's new tower is looking sexy and stylish. One offering that stands out--especially to someone that thinks in terms of lifestyle pleasures--is the co-ed Turkish spa or "Hammam".

What are they implying about the place with pictures of sexy bods in the spa (I mean just look at that photo--does that not imply sex?!) and descriptive phrases in their marketing material like "...innovative and sensual coed sanctuary", a "...social gathering" place, and "...full of curves, sexy lighting and cool mosaic-tiled booth benches and slabs, the Palms Place Hammam recipe is sizzling, healthy fun"?
Very suggestive...

I ask you, how could it be more sizzling and healthy than to have a good old-fashioned orgy in a Turkish spa?
Let us know how it goes should you visit...

The LowLife venue listing for Palms Place, complete with more photos of the rooms and spa.

None of them started out thinking they'd end up being an impersonator or tribute artist in Las Vegas--they just wanted to perform. A common theme for all is one voiced by Sharon Owens, who does a Barbra Streisand knock-off: she knew she wanted to be someone. She had no clue that she'd wind up being somebody else.

But the singers profiled in this article are all at the top of their game and earn a pretty good living being Streisand, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra.

While the US economy sucks and the credit crunch is slowing investment by American firms, those wacky foreigners are using their now-stronger currency to buy everything from high-rise condos and retail centers to parcels of land and pieces of existing resorts and construction projects.

Dubai World invested $2.4 billion to gain 50% of CityCenter and spent another $2.4 billion to get a chunk of MGM Mirage. Israelis paid $1.2 bil. for the property where the New Frontier was, Australians spent a couple billion on Cannery Casino Resorts and a piece of the under-construction Fountainbleu.
Foreigners are also buying lots of condos and homes and even strip malls and apartment complexes.

The story of the foreign invasion.

They keep trying to bring culture to Las Vegas--to the Strip specifically--but maybe, just maybe, people don't come here for culture. Ya think?

You can't say the Venetian didn't give it the ol' college try, though. After nearly seven years on the Strip, the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian will close its doors May 11, leaving only the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art--the place where the fine art effort pretty much began.

One good thing about all of this, however: the Guggenheim will offer free admission from now until it closes. Now's a good time to check the place out.

An article on why the Guggenheim failed in Las Vegas.

Judging by some of the profile photos we process on ALL, more than a few couples come to town looking for "BBC" for their ladies. Judging by other photos submitted by black males, this site offers a good selection of candidates featuring goods that fit the bill.

If you were wondering about a nightclub that might have the same offerings, a good place to look would be Spin Nightclub on East Flamingo. Spin is a hard-core hip hop and R&B club featuring the remnants of the old O-PM Nightclub gang.

Spin competes with Poetry (in Caesars Forum) for the same crowd so has upped the ante in the competition by offering ladies an "open bar all night" long on Wednesdays (their traditional jam-packed night), Friday & Saturday nights. We don't see any restrictions on the flyer so let us know how it goes should you attend.

Hopefully more clubs will follow suit with the free drink promotions! Spin LowLife listing

There have been several posts in our Forum about restaurants and the ones that get the most attention are steak houses. So, it was good to see a survey go up in our Forum for the "Best Steak Restaurant". Place your vote (it's easy and anonymous) or state your opinion--we'd love to hear it as would our members.
Click on THIS LINK to get to the Forum topic.

A new nightclub & restaurant called "Puff" opens this weekend. It's got dancing, dining, live entertainment, hookahs and a Moroccan decor. It can accommodate up to 1000 people and is open 7x24. If ya go, write a review for us...
LowLife Listing for Puff

Ya wonder what took 'em so long. It seems normal for a company possessing a name associated with a particular level of quality or name recognition, when they acquire/merge with a company with a higher or broader level of name recognition, to change their name to the latter.

Circus Circus didn't acquire Mandalay Bay but they sure went upscale when they built the place so it was a no-brainer for Circus Circus Enterprises to become Mandalay Resort Group. And, it was a pretty sweet idea for MGM to add the name Mirage to their moniker when they bought Mr. Wynn's properties as the Mirage name quickly became known worldwide as the class of the Strip after it opened in 1989.

So, three years after acquiring Caesars Palace, Harrah's Entertainment will finally become Caesars Entertainment.

Ya wonder what the delay was. American LowLife heard there was a huge, raucous board of directors meeting which pitted the various casino factions against each other. We were able to obtain the exclusive transcripts from that name-change meeting: (more)

Just read this from the latest AVN mailing--thought it was interesting. Porn starlet Bree Olson (from Fort Wayne, Indiana), learned about sex at an early age and was hooked from the beginning.

Bree Olson: Best of the Midwest
'I was just so normal. Aside from the sex thing...'
By: Peter Warren

So what's our 25th Best New Starlet all about, anyway? One thing's for sure: Bree Olson is your Smalltown, U.S.A., peach-next-door incarnate (except maybe for the part about fucking herself in the ass with a chair leg in her younger years...more on that later).

How It All Started (more)

From Norm, gossip dude of the R-J, on how the Moon waitress met Clooney:

"Sarah Larson cleared up a big mystery on Wednesday: how she ended up in the company of actor George Clooney, one of the world's most eligible bachelors. It was long before the much-reported "Ocean's Thirteen" premiere during CineVegas last June at the Palms, said Larson, in her first lengthy interview since their relationship got serious.

"It was on his birthday three or four years ago at Whiskey at Green Valley Ranch," she said. Clooney was with some friends, including Whiskey owner Rande Gerber, "and I was with some friends. "We were all dancing, taking pictures, being silly," she said. Larson, who worked as a cocktail server at Whiskey, was dating someone else at the time.

More on the HookUp (more)

If you've ever been to the Sands Expo for a convention you know it's not particularly a terrible site for a convention but it ain't the best. It's certainly showing it's age and with no parking, low ceilings on the bottom level and difficult loading/unloading access more than a few exhibitors have grumbled over the years.

The Sands, parent company of the Venetian and Palazzo, has some land very close by and plan to build a much more modern convention center there, hopefully by 2010.

One hitch in the plans is that the proposed center is surrounded by three sides on land owned by Steve Wynn and, considering the very-public fued Wynn and Sands owner Sheldon Adelson have engaged in over the past several years one would think that might pose some problems. However, the Sands says they have an agreement with Wynn that would allow bridges and sidewalks to access the center which probably indicates that ol' Steve sees the value in a top-notch convention facility next door to his resort and is willing to push aside personal differences to help with his bottom line.

Besides having a new expo center, the Sands would probably tear the old facility down giving them room to develop as many as 7,000 new hotel rooms on one of the priciest pieces of real estate in the city.

At first, we weren't sure why it was mentioned in a Vegas publication, but the "news" that a line captain of Riviera's "Crazy Girls" show recently moved to a different part of Las Vegas made their headlines. However, after looking at the photo we now understand. Elizabeth Grantham is news wherever she goes, even when she simply moves into her new Green Valley home.
"Lizzy" was taken aback that women might enjoy checking her out: “I was surprised that there are as many women as men at ‘Crazy Girls.’ We actually get mostly couples who come to see our show,” she said.
We've got to get her into the lifestyle so she understands better...

Musicians for the Cirque du Soleil production of Ka, unlike other Strip shows, are buried deep beneath the MGM Grand stage in what is known as "the dungeon". Another dissimilarity with other Vegas shows is the fact that all the musicians are "elaborately costumed and in full makeup, decorated in a hybrid of Kabuki and sci-fi, eyes and lips outlined in scarlet and black, gold and silver, faces dotted here and there with glistening jewels."
This may seem strange at first glance but then again, this is a Cirque show so ya never know. In Ka, the muscians will run out on stage from time to time and participate in the production as extras.

Now here's an article with some news you can use. It lists restaurants where you can get many different styles of food in the wee hours of the morning. Some serve food until 2 or 3 in the morning and some 24 hours. Looking for late-night burgers, Chinese, Italian, Korean, steaks or shushi? Check out this helpful list of off-hour dining options.

LAS VEGAS -- Strip headliner Toni Braxton has been admitted to a local hospital. Braxton was admitted to St. Rose Dominican Hospital sometime after her show Monday night at the Flamingo.

Hospital officials said she is in good condition. It is not clear why she is in the hospital, but Braxton does have a heart condition called pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. She found out about the condition after the birth of her second son. Braxton is the spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

UPDATE: (more)

As you can see by all the cranes towering over the Strip, Las Vegas is in a building boom at what could be the worst time in our history to have one. We are generally immune to economic slowdowns but news articles to the contrary keep rearing their ugly heads so we'll throw a few out there today.

The LA correspondent for the London Times feels that we've reached a tipping point. If all the Strip projects in the works actually get completed "...Las Vegas will be a new city. If not, the entire house of cards could collapse." He does say the upside to the situation is that it's a lot easier to get a table at a restaurant right now.

Another downer article--this one from the Wall Street Journal--on the continuing saga of those that purchased Strip condos with the hope of renting them out to make their mortgage nut.

Besides lower room rates and it being easier to get restaurant reservations, the economic slowdown has had another positive effect: the rise in the price of show tickets has slowed down a bit.

Wynn's aquatic spectacle, Le Reve, has undergone more face lifts than Joan Rivers, is still considered a work in progress and some even call it Le Revision.
The ever-changing atmosphere is directly due to Steve Wynn who never seems to be satisfied with the show. A LowLife member who might be biased (since he's one of the scuuba divers working the show) thinks it's the best on the Strip. Another LowLife thinks the show has gone from very good to almost unbearable.
Here's a look at the new show, the recent overhaul and a Le Reve timeline.

While Las Vegas has generally been considered recession-proof, there are definate indications that our local economy is slowing down. While airline and car traffic is down, the most obvious sign is hotel room rates.

Rooms are going for $75 at Harrah’s, $69 and Bally’s and just $199 at Wynn Las Vegas and the Venetian. Even one of the Strip’s most exclusive hotels, the Four Seasons, is offering a $50 credit on hotel services as well as rooms for less than $400 a night.

And this is happening with 130,000 rooms. It'll be interesting to see what happens to rates once the additional 40,000 rooms that are under construction become available.

Franki Valli tried to make a go of it on the Las Vegas Strip a few times in recent years, first at the Flamingo and then at the Luxor and both shows were cut short. He did have a bit better success in the 70's at the Aladdin but was the only place that would hire him, despite his enourmous commercial success, Valli says.
Off the Strip he had a good run appearing at The Orleans on a regular basis between '97 an '04 but the Strip just wasn't too kind to him.
Until now. With the opening of the Jersey Boys at the Palazzo in the "Jersey Boys Theater" with tickets going for up to $270, Valli is having the last laugh.

If you have a restaurant and want to make some real cash, moving into the right casino can do wonders for ya. The Original Pancake House inside Green Valley Ranch is the top revenue producer of the four Vegas locations. The Pancakers are thinking the trend will continue with their offering in the soon-to-be-opened Aliante Station.

T.G.I. Fridays in The Orleans is not only the top-revenue-producing Friday's in Nevada, it's the top-revenue-producing Friday's among the 68 restaurants owned and operated by the ownership group in the entire nation.

Of course, ya gotta pick a decent place to locate your biz. Outback Steakhouse gave it a try in Arizona Charlie's (the Decatur dive) for some reason and closed in less than a year.

The first of three Vegas-themed movies opening this spring, "21" is based on a true story of some M.I.T. whiz kids who learn how to count cards and win a bundle playing blackjack in Las Vegas. (The other movies with a Vegas backdrop include "Deal" and "What Happens In Vegas")

Locals will find some fun in scene-spotting, in particular a shot that features Kevin Spacey and the whiz kids celebrating in a Hard Rock Hotel suite that somehow has a close-up view of the Bellagio fountains.

More on the movie and on card counting (more)

To get Paris Hilton at your club or private party you'll need to shell out at least $100,000. Carmen Electra is in the range of $50-$75k. Ron Jeremy, well, he's available for quite a bit less, say, in the $3-$5k range. Then again, "the hedgehog" works 5-7 days/week around the country.
A quick look at this phenomenon.

Jeremy Pond, of the Las Vegas R-J, fills us in on what's happening in Las Vegas clubs this weekend.

While we would prefer getting innundated with Jersey girls, we're glad that all the pre-opening hype for Jersey Boys will finally pass and people can actually see the show. The Broadway mega-hit has opened at the Palazzo, although they are calling them "preview performances" until the official grand opening on May 3 (Frankie Valli's 74th birthday).

Despite the fact they are designated "preview" status, the Palazzo is charging full ticket prices ($70-$250) so "Walk Like A Man" right up to that ticket window and plunk down the Visa card. Remember, "Big Girls Don't Cry", even when you paid $250 per to see the cast make a few mistakes while working the bugs out of the new theatre.

Jersey Boys LowLife Listing

Last week it was Aloha Airlines. Now, suddenly, ATA Airlines has closed up shop with its sudden bankruptcy declaration making it more difficult--and probably more expensive--to travel between the two leisure destinations.
Hawaiian Airlines, with its 360,000 annual passenger count and Boyd Gaming's 70,000 charter passengers are still in the Hawaii biz but with the two other airline's departures, direct flights have been cut 40%.
We love those gambling-mad islanders and they seem to love Las Vegas as they are the 10th largest source state for the market sending more than 500,000 visitors here annually. Hopefully, another airlines will step in to fill the void.

...or will we?

There was a beauty pageant in Thailand, see, and there were all these hot little Asian babes, don't ya know and, ah, the Mrs. and I ended up at the pageant after-party and mingled with those very same hot little Asian babes and the liquor started to flow and, um, one thing led to another and so we kinda picked out a couple of the contestants we liked and ended up in the bedroom and, well, gosh darn it, who woulda thought that those hot little Asian babes would actually have fully functional penile members? Go figure...

Pageant Photos (more)

Following in the path of successful bands coming out of Las Vegas such as Crystal Method and The Killers, Panic at the Disco has a hit on their hands with their sophomore album "Pretty. Odd". The release debuted at #2 on the Billboard "Top 200" album chart just as the Killers did with their second album "Sam's Town" in 2006.
An interesting statistic and a sign of the times, 26% of the album's sales were of the digital variety.
Way to go, boys, we're proud of ya!

If you are familiar with BDsM venues like the Power Exchange in San Francisco and wondered why Las Vegas doesn't have a place for Doms and subs to explore their lifestyle, well, now we have one and it's a first class facility.

The Libertine Dungeon may not be as big as the legendary Power Exchange (not yet, anyway--there's room to grow from the current 6,500 sq. feet) but it's obvious lots of money was spent building the 9 theme studios and 30 play stations which include elaborate racks, stocks, torture wheels, wet rooms, cages and other restraining devices.

If this is your thing (or ever wondered about it), you really ought to check Libertine out. The owners are obviously into that lifestyle but are also into our lifestyle so besides being an amazing dungeon, it's also a sexy party place with several comfortable socializing areas (including a dance floor) just perfect for those times when you don't want to be quite so, um, restrained...
The LowLife listing for Libertine

After a night of partying on the Strip, more than a few Summerlin and Henderson residents have found it difficult to get a taxicab to take them back home. Some have been told to get out of the cab while others have had to offer an extra tip in hopes the driver will change his mind. The practice is illegal but until more people complain on the TaxiCab Authority website it'll probably continue, possibly increasing the number of drunk drivers on the road.

FX Real Estate and Entertainment hold a licensing agreement with Elvis Presley Entertainment allowing the company to use the name and certain assets from the entertainer's estate so they are going Vegas with it, of course. That is, if they can get financing in these troubled economic times.

FX has big plans (to the tune of $3.1 billion): First phase is to include an "Elvis-inspired" luxury hotel and casino and a separate hotel-condominium. FX will own and operate the 2,269-room hotel and 93,000-square-foot casino.

A 206,000-square-foot convention space, retail space, restaurants and showroom also is planned (where an Elvis-themed Cirque show is supposedly in the works). Developers hope to tap into the market for Elvis-themed weddings with several wedding chapels, a bridal and flower shop, and wedding reception and banquet areas.

There's a whole lot of shakin' going on but we'll see if that translates into an actual completion in 2012 as announced.

CasinoCityTimes.com lists their Top 10 things to do in Las Vegas which don't involve gaming tables or slot machines. For some strange reason this list doesn't include a single mention of a PurrfectLV after-party, a night of swappin' at Couples Oasis or a gang bang at the Green Door but it does include activities such as a gondola ride at the Venetian, dinner at Stratosphere's Top of the World and a goblet of Klingon Blood Wine at Quark's Bar in the Hilton.
To each his own...