Returning to Life

 For the first day of 2025, a post on this long-dormant domain. Greetings.  Fitness options in Silicon Valley have changed and yet remain the same. A landscape of chain gyms, a large scattering of specialty shops - pilates, yoga, focused training. 

Anyway, no commitments that more will be coming, but we will see.

I Used to Love the Neon - Sigh

 

I used to walk the strip, engaged in the neon signs and sadly miss those these days. There's a great article about the history of neon lights in Vegas from UC Davis called "A Bit Bright": The Rise and Fall of the Neon Signs in Las Vegas.

Anyway...my last trip there (Summer 2024) I realized I needed to get with the program, and enjoy the digital that now populate all of Vegas, not just the outside lights. Much of the digital still appears as clutter to me but I came to enjoy the reflections and versatility.

Caesars Vegas properties say show me the money - the resort fee money

The big, "No resort fee" campaign just went down in smoke, as all the Caesares properties have added resort fees as of March 1, 2013.  Yes, the famous "We won't do it" figured that no matter how much guests hate it, they don't cancel trips because of it, and have announced that they are charging a resort fee of $10 - $25 per day for all of its Vegas properties.

And why? According to the NBC.com coverage, guests requested it: “We do a lot of surveys of our customers and most of them were, one, accustomed to paying resort fees at our competitors and, two, they wanted us to provide them with a package price instead of having the inconvenience of separate fees,”  according to spokesman Gary Thompson. 

This is spin that's bad by any definition.

Vegas just keeps getting less fun.

Element Hotel in Las Vegas adds pedal-power to charge your tablet

An announcement on Dec. 10 alerted me to the fact that guests of Element Hotels now can pedal their way to a fully charged tablet or smart phone. Since there is an  Element Hotel in Summerlin, at 10555 Discovery Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89135  it seemed like an interesting tidbit to pass along.

The pilot to Element’s Pedal for Power program, unveiled at Element Miami International Airport’s opening event, saw bicycling enthusiast and Starwood president and CEO Frits van Paasschen join associates in a pedal-pushing effort that generated enough electricity to power up flat-screen plasma monitors and laptops for a virtual ribbon-cutting. 

According to the press information, the Element Hotel fitness centers are well equipped and open 24 hours. Saline pools and bikes to borrow are available to give travelers added incentive to get up and go. 

Other tenets of the brand’s commitment to balanced living on the road include the following:

• Guest rooms and public spaces are designed to be bathed in natural daylight, as guests’ mood and productivity are improved in a well-lit environment.
• Complimentary RISE breakfast offers healthy options including egg white wraps and fruit smoothies.
• Seamless connectivity is offered via free Wi-Fi in public spaces and in guest rooms, which also include ergonomic chairs at workstations.
• Guests can work, relax and fuel up on their own schedules, with kitchens in every room and a fully stocked 24/7 grab and go gourmet pantry.
   

Sandy-related fundraiser Vegas style: food, drinks, entertianment

If you're in Las Vegas Sunday, Dec. 9 head to the fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
  

Vegas restaurants and chefs with roots in both New York City are holding a fundraising event,  “Start Spreadin’ the News,"  11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Brooklyn Bridge at New York-New York Hotel & Casino .

For a $100 ticket (available at RedCrossLasVegas.org, NewYorkNewYork.com/Sandy) guests will sample food from celebrity chefs Scott Conant  and Francois Payard  as well as cuisine from 22 of the city’s top restaurants; six bars featuring specialty cocktails, craft beers and wines; and appearances and entertainment from Las Vegas personalities.

Restaurants from across The Strip will feature an array of signature dishes and New York–inspired culinary delights:

• Bellagio: Todd English’s Olives
• Caesars Palace: Payard Patisserie & Bistro and Rao’s
• The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas: Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, Scarpetta and D.O.C.G. Enoteca
• Crystals at CityCenter: Todd English P.U.B.
• The Forum Shops at Caesars: The Palm Las Vegas
• Mandalay Bay: Aureole
• MGM Grand: Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak and Stage Deli
• The Mirage: Carnegie Deli and BLT Burger
• New York-New York: Broadway Burger, Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs and Bonanno’s New York Pizza
• Paris Las Vegas: Gordon Ramsay Steak
• The Venetian & Palazzo: B&B Ristorante, Carnevino, Otto and Bouchon Bakery
• Smith & Wollensky

Bar stations provided by Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada will offer craft beers, an array of wines and five specialty cocktails handcrafted by mixologists from the United States Bartenders Guild with assistance from Back Bar USA. P

aying homage to New York City, the featured libations will include “Yankee Doodle,” “Forgetaboutit!,” “Eastside/Westside,” “The Neighborhood” and “‘5’ Boroughs.”


In addition to several surprises adding to the excitement, all attendees will receive a commemorative chip reading, “When the ‘chips’ were down, Las Vegas stepped up to help those who were dealt a bad hand by Hurricane Sandy, 12–9–12.”

Bye Bye Bill's Gambin' Hall. Upscale boutique finally a reality

On Nov. 30, 2012, Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: CZR)  announced its previously arranged $185 million, seven-year senior secured credit facility will fund the conversion of Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon to a boutique lifestyle hotel and casino.  The renovation includes the addition of a rooftop pool as well as a dayclub/nightclub.  Drai Management Group will manage the club.

"This project exemplifies our strategy to develop new experiences that will help attract a broader spectrum of visitors to Las Vegas and our properties," said Gary Loveman, chairman, chief executive officer and president of the company. "The renovated property will provide visitors with a sophisticated, upscale experience, including a unique rooftop pool and club, which will have a panoramic view of the Las Vegas Strip."

The conversion includes the complete remodeling of the guest rooms, casino floor and common areas, the addition of a new second floor restaurant, and the construction of the 65,000 square foot rooftop pool and dayclub/nightclub. 

Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon will temporarily close on Feb. 4, 2013 to accommodate the remodeling.  The renovated hotel and casino is expected to open in early 2014, under a new name, while the rooftop club will open later that year. The renovated resort and club are anticipated to employ more than 1,000 people.

37-foot neon showgirls to stand over new zipline in downtown Las Vegas

I hope you caught the announcement about the Fremont Street Experience adding a new SlotZilla-themed zipline. 

While I think it's a fun sort of tacky, wonderful touch to the already frenzied fraternity house atmosphere that has become downtown Las Vegas, I have to admit that what I like the most is not what's getting the headlines.  Well, it got MY headline above: the two, 37-foot showgirls that are on the upper zipline platform.

For some reason, that makes it all ok. Check out the full article, and see some pics of Fremont Street while you're looking.

9 out of top 10 US nightclubs are in Vegas

The magazine Nightclub & Bar recently announced its list of the top 100 most successful large nightclubs in the US, and nine out of the top 10 are in Las Vegas.  

It's not really a surprise to anyone who has watched the economics of Las Vegas move from gambling to clubbing and shopping, but very interesting.  Marquee, XS, Tao, Pure top the list.  Can you guess the rest?  Take a try then check out the facts. http://www.nightclub.com/files/ncb/Top100Chart_Web2012.pdf 

If you're curious about how a nightclub works,  (and though alcohol is the $$, it's not what clubs are actually selling), check out this interesting TEDx talk that Explains How Nightclubs Work.

Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegas

There are already an abundance of  pics throughout the web showing the Cosmopolitan Hotel's rooms and art, so during my recent stay, I focused on some of the smaller details that I liked about the hotel.

I liked the wall paper in the toilet area - and when you look below, you'll see the design upclose.  Like everything in the hotel, there are little "delights for the eyes" everywhere

I liked that the tv in the sitting area of the terrace studio room had plenty of ways to connect devices easily

Throughout the public areas there are all sorts of interesting sitting areas.  Above and below are two that caught my fancy

I liked having a micro - I was able to warm water for a cuppa tea w/o paying room service $10 to deliver it

I loved the display windows in the retail stores - here is a shop on the second floor of the hotel - looking close (below) you'll see it's hundreds of antique sewing machines, and it's impossible not to get carried away with the idea of the stories each one represents

So the mini-bar is in keeping with the demographics of the hotel:  a $7.50 box of condoms

Even in the casino there is digital art - in the section of the casino along the Strip, there are small beaded enclosures with slot machines and constantly changing digital images

A new twist on being buried in the desert

An interesting new offering in Vegas - a company called Dig This, that is being offered to meeting planners as a team building exercise. 

It's a heavy equipment company where corporate attendees can operate 15-ton Caterpillar excavators and 10-ton bulldozers.  

Every experience starts with safety lessons and equipment overview then in-cab training and then the activity.  It takes place on five acres of land and lasts   from 90 minutes to five hours, depending on the package booked.  According to Incentive Magazine, where I picked up this tidbit, the teambuilding activity is designed for 30 to 40 participants.  Of course, all I can think about is how companies might want to learn to bury their past.  Too much gangster lore for me I guess.

Anyway, good luck to Dig This.  If you know anyone who has taken part in one of the company's adventures, post a comment about it.

Missing Vegas? take a look at this Philip Bloom 4 min video shot from MGM Signature

24 Hours of Neon from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

WILHELMINA HOT BODY MODEL SEARCH OPEN CALL Setp 25 in Las VEGAS

WILHELMINA MODELS, SHAPE AND MEN’S FITNESS

TO HOLD WILHELMINA HOT BODY MODEL SEARCH OPEN CALL

AT VITAMIN SHOPPE BOOTH DURING

The Olympia Weekend 2010 in Las VEGAS

 

WHO:              World-renowned modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models, along with Shape, Men’s Fitness and The Vitamin Shoppe, will host an open call for The Wilhelmina Hot Body Model Search during The Olympia at the Las Vegas Convention Center

 

WHAT:            The Wilhelmina Hot Body Model Search open call is looking for one woman and one man to join their group of Olympic athletes, professional trainers, and yoga enthusiasts already signed with Wilhelmina’s Fitness division. Wilhelmina represents A-list talent including Fergie, Cyndi Lauper, Natasha Bedingfield, and Estelle, as well as male supermodels Gabriel Aubry and Mark Vanderloo. The Las Vegas open casting call welcomes applicants that exemplify health and fitness.

 

The search

·         Ideal contestants are men and women 18+ who live a healthy and fit lifestyle

·         $20 registration fee

·         Each participant will meet with trainers and nutritional consultants

·         Each participant will have the opportunity to be photographed by a professional fashion/fitness photographer

·         A panel of judges consisting of Wilhelmina talent scouts and Shape/Men’s Fitness editors will review all entries

 

Ten finalists (5 women/5 men) will:

·         Be invited and flown to New York for a finale event where the two winners will be selected live by a panel of judges

·         One female and one male winner will receive a five year Wilhelmina contract, will be featured in editorials for Shape and Men’s Fitness and receive a year’s supply of products provided by The Vitamin Shoppe

 

WHEN:            Saturday, September 25^th

                        10am – 5pm

 

WHERE:          The Olympia Weekend 2010

Las Vegas Convention Center - South Hall 1

3150 Paradise Road

Las Vegas, Nevada, 89109

Booth #: 1001

 

WEBSITE:      www.wilhelminamodelsearch.com

casino floor plans

I'm forever wanting to check on the floor plan of one casino or another.  Yes, I know they change quite frequently - new pits in, new machines placed, new poker rooms constructed, old machines out, slots become vp.  Anyway, here's the site I check when I need to see the floor plan. Casino  Property Maps

Links to Las Vegas Convention information

Wonder why hotel rates are high in Vegas in the middle of a no-nothing week?  Check the convention calendar and see what else is in town.

You can check here or at the official convention bureau site's conference planner here.  Information is power, maybe.  With the flexible calendars most of the hotels have showing all the rates per date, you don't really need to know WHY, just when.

Great maps for Las Vegas - golf, Strip, downtown and more

If you are looking for terrific maps of hotels, attractions, etc. you can't do any better than to go to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau at http://www.lvcva.com/vegas-maps.jsp

There are interactive maps, standard maps, and more.  On the interactive maps you can find shopping, food, attractions, etc.  On the North Strip interactive map you can even find the indoor skydiving center.  On the standard maps there are surrounding areas, golf courses, points of interest, etc.

Check it out.

The Promise of Gangster Glamour - new paper up at UNLV

The Promise of Gangster Glamour: Sinatra, Vegas, and Alluring, Ethnicized, Excess
Laura Cook Kenna

Love the mystery and history of Las Vegas?  Check out this white paper:

Las Vegas has been linked with Frank Sinatra since the 1950s. The highly‐publicized
performances of the Rat Pack (consisting of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and
Peter Lawford) at the Sands crystallized the image of Las Vegas as a place that mingled economic
mobility with excess. This excess was often associated with ethnicity and frequently linked to
crime. It was, however, the excess that made Las Vegas and Sinatra glamorous to many audiences.
Keywords: Las Vegas, Rat Pack, Gangsters, American Ethnicity - Read more on the original White Paper site.

For the Vegas foodie: a story on Brett Ottolenghi

LETTER FROM LAS VEGAS about Brett Ottolenghi.

Ottolenghi is the proprietor of Artisanal Foods, which supplies top Las Vegas chefs with foie gras, truffles, caviar, saffron, vinegars, cinnamon, oils, salts, and ham. He often says that he is on a first-name basis with three-hundred and seventy chefs in Las Vegas. To the chefs, he is “the truffle kid”—for his first product—or Hamleg, owing to his tendency to walk through casino lobbies carrying the hairy, hoof-on hindquarters of a pig. He specializes in the small run, the vaguely regulated, the hard to come by, and the near-banned.

Read more at the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/16/100816fa_fact_goodyear#ixzz0wnk3QiNZ

It's a great story about the chefs of Vegas and their demands to top each other, and how one man serves them in a city where everything is on sale for the right price.

Vegas on Facebook: the Golden Nugget takes big leap forward

Reading Wired always pays off, but seldom does it fulfill my Vegas fix for the day.  But here's an article about the Golden Nugget's use of Facebook (way far ahead of what the other casinos are doing...and maybe the look of the future?)

If you thought your addiction to FrontierVille was a problem, just wait until you get hooked by the lure of a jackpot.
Golden Nugget Vegas Casino is playable now on Facebook, although the game’s publisher will officially launch it on Tuesday. This new distraction was created by Last Legion Games, the folks behind Watchmen: Justice is Coming, and is the first social game branded to a real-world Las Vegas gambling house.
Seth Gerson, CEO of Last Legion’s parent company AltEgo, said in an email to Wired.com that addiction is part of a winning social game strategy — and that he frequently finds himself sucked into Facebook games.
“I constantly tell my wife that I am just doing research,” Gerson admits. “But when you get past level five or six, you’re clearly crossing the line.”

Golden Nugget Vegas Casino hopes to foster that kind of obsessive play by rewarding players for building and maintaining their own casinos and playing games of chance like Blackjack, Video Poker and Roulette at the parlors their friends trick out.

Read the rest of the article on  http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/08/golden-nugget/#ixzz0wJzGgAZG

No hula-hoops on Fremont Street

One of the funniest, and best, Vegas writers, Steve Friess wrote this article for AOL about a possible ban of Hula-Hoops on the five blocks that are the Fremont Street Experience. 

The article covers both the goofy and the serious nature of a bill being considered by the Las Vegas City Council but of course, Friess being the writer that he is, also gives devoted fans a chance to see behind the curtain, so to speak, on his blog, Vegas Happens Here. 

(BTW, there's a comment from an Amy there - which is not me.  I would have explained that I am that little old lady who would probably have her hip broken by some wild, rampaging hula-hooper...anyway, that's just so y' know that, by gawd, there's another Amy out there who reads all things Vegas)

Friess points out the legal issues with banning the activity in a public area, and says,

While I've not witnessed these Hula Hooping hooligans myself, I'm finding it hard to imagine that you're just standing around minding your own bees wax, perhaps wholesomely watching the Mermaids video chick drooling Twinkee filling, when all of a sudden somebody spontaneously smacks you down with a hoop. Most Hula Hoopers try hard to avoid having the hoop hit anybody or thing because the point of the activity is to get the hoop to continually circle you for as long as possible, not to rob the aged of their mobility. You won't be a very good Hula Hooper if your radius is populated by hip-replacement candidates, right?

Friess gives you everything you want to know including a good laugh and a few points to ponder about whether or not you consider hula hoops to be a menace to Vegas tourism. Check it out.

Rumor Boutique Hotel opens in Vegas

With a barely-there web site, Rumor Hotel, a "boutique chic" hotel across from the Hard Rock Casino has  opened on the site of the former St. Tropez hotel. 

Here's the Las Vegas Sun article about it, which briefly describes the concept and sounds pretty appealing.  There are a lot of folks who long for some sanity and a tranquil spot away from the Strip. 

I had hoped the web site would be more informative, but alas, I think they forgot about the web site until a day before opening and then said, "oh, hey, grab some photos from somewhere and hang out a shingle that says we're open."  The web site links to Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor as press, but I can't find mention of the hotel on the page they link to.  And the photo of the rooms on the site is just gawd-awful ugly.  All in all, right now the web site makes it seem like a down-scale Motel 8.

Even the special offer advertised on the site is a measly stay a night, get a night free.  Maybe it's still in shake-down mode?  Or, uh, shake-out?  Whatever.   Anyway, good luck.  Hopefully they'll get it together and thrive.  You gotta love a Vegas hotel where the maids use purple Radio Flyer wagons.