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The New Strip:
Street: Las Vegas Blvd.
Casinos: 43
Length: 8 miles
Time to Drive: 1 hr
Time to Walk: All Day
Claim to Fame:
The state of Nevada charges a $3 energy tax on every single hotel room on the strip.
Actually, on every single hotel room in the state. If any place needs a rolling
blackout, this is it.
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Voice Count of the Day |
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Strip Cheese:
Now performing nightly in the lounge...
Imperial: May & Murray
Tropicana: Birdman of LV
Caesar's: Tony Tillman
Bally's: Van McGlothan
Gold Coast: The Honky Tonk Angels
Nugget: Nathan Owens
Monte Carlo: Raquel Martell
Paris: Denise Clemente
Castaways: Phil Dirt and the Dozers
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A Closer Look At...
The Sahara
If it's got throbbing wall flowers, 50-foot ceilings, and the best butt-shaking lounge singers around, it's the Sahara! Rub that lamp for good luck!
Margarita: $6.50
Entertainment: Free!
Atmosphere: Friendly
The Floor
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Why I Never Considered Music As A Career
Feb 18, later -
Some of you may not know this, but I've been playing the piano since I was five. I'm
pretty good, not fabulous, but pretty good. I like to think I can bang out a tune with
the best of them.
I also played the French Horn for six years, the trumpet for at five in the high
school jazz band, and I can noodle around with the guitar. You know, chords, campfire
songs, that sort of thing. I picked up a friend's clarinet one afternoon, and was
playing her festival piece within an hour. I've even written two musicals, both
performed at Magnus Theatre, the local playhouse in Thunder Bay.
I like music. I enjoy music. More so, I enjoy performing. If a friend has a piano in
their house, I'll most likely sit down and knock out a couple of tunes before the night
is out. Even better if they sing along.
I've never thought of myself as a "musician" by trade, though. When people asked me
what I wanted to do as a career, I don't believe I ever said "musician". To be honest,
music just isn't a field that I ever considered, well, lucrative. It's a fantastic hobby,
but lucrative? Not for me.
Yes yes yes, I understand. People make millions in the music industry today. Billions.
Of course it's lucrative. But your chances of making it lucrative are about as good as
pulling a 7-7-7 on the slots with a single quarter.
Take these guys, for example. They were talented, they were funny; they were really
really good. Who were they? The Chris Something-or-Other Project, I think. They're the house
band for the Sahara Casino. Kickin' horn section. Piano was tight. Great bass (the
bassist's name was Chris Something-or-Other, he was the musical director).
They performed some great original stuff, and their covers were sometimes
better than the actual artist. They even adlibbed a few obscure requests, doing a great,
if not funny, job, while the singer mumbled his way through forgotten words.
 
But you see? So much musical talent, and they're a Vegas lounge act. You watch
them while drinking your nine dollar martini, chat away to your friends during the performance
and go somewhere else when they sing a song you don't like as much.
Meanwhile, Wayne Newton is just up the street doing the
same thing at $75 a ticket.
With music, as with Eddie Murphy's thoughts on any type of show business, you're either
lucky, or you're a bum. It's that simple. Even if you're really really really good,
someone with lots of money and power has to be there at the right place at the right
time to see you, and like you enough to make you famous. Single quarter, 7-7-7.
Did you know that the first big hit by Britney Spears and by the Backstreet Boys
were both written by the same guy? That guy's name? Couldn't tell you offhand. This
is a guy who found the loophole. In the words of the Pet Shop Boys, "I've got the brains,
you've got the looks. Let's make lots of money." There are some with musical talent with
no image, and there are others loaded with image and no musical talent. If they can
hook up, well, er, perhaps Backstreet was a poor example.
So, music as a career? For me? I don't think so. Maybe someday way in the future,
I'll be famous for something else, then suddenly come out with an album... I'll be like
John Tesh! No, not John Tesh. Think before you type, dammit.
I'm content with music as my hobby. If I'm ever in one of those right place right time
situations, like I'm in Northwest Oregon and I sit down at a piano in a nearly empty
bar, and the only other patron happens to be David Geffen, and he offers me a contract
for 50 million dollars, I'll consider it. But for now, I think I've got better chances
at the slots.
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lottery winners of life... |
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 Today's Weather:
Neon-lit Skys
The Piggly Wiggly game isn't really a piggly wiggly game. I think it's called Oinkin' Boinkin' Piggy Bank Slots O' Fun or something. But it's got pigs on it, and we love pigs thanks to the Piggly Wiggly!
We Love the Piggly Wiggly! |
| Sleeping Quarters |
Imperial Palace
 
Toom 138. To get to our room, you go through the casino, past the shops, up the escalator, past the ticket booth, up the other escalator, down the elevator, around the corner and there you are!
Start to Finish: 8 min
Cost: $49.00
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Drinks:
  | Tropicana Casino
Vegas Strip |
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| Each: | Margaritas |
| Cost: | $2.00 |
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Dinner:
| Burger King in O'Shea's Casino
Vegas Strip |
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| A's Order: | Sourdough Bacon Cheeseburger King Size Extra Value Meal |
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| Cost: | $5.54 |
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