So, here I am, barely managing to power through the day, exhausted from a weekend in Vegas in which I think I got about 5 hours of sleep over 2 days. This was my first time visiting Sin City, and overall I had a great time. Me, the Axe Man, G-Man, and Coach Carter had a grand ol' time. We stayed at the Luxor (home of Pharoah's Pheast), toured several of the big hotels / casinos (ranging from cool to utterly tacky), partied it up at such local hotspots as Rumjungle at Mandalay Bay and Rain at the Palms (which lived up to the hype - I mean, it had a lighting system that shot FIREBALLS), and generally took in the sights and sounds and bright lights of the big city. And even though or initial flight out of Burbank was delayed by three hours, we still got in plenty of adventure - we even had the funniest cab driver of all time (think Matt Foley inspiration speaker), whose dismissal of Vegas as "hell on earth" set the tone for the rest of the weekend (in a good way, I think ...). It was a much-needed escape from LA, and a nice way to unwind (even if we never did get to see the magic of Hans Klok featuring Pamela Anderson - that, Borg 4-D, and "Bite" are on my to-do list for next time ...). Certainly a weekend for the record books. Check me out on Facebook and MySpace where I will try to upload some pictures shortly.
- Must catch up on many movies over the next week - STILL need to see Knocked Up ...
- Have you seen Eagle vs. Shark yet? Go see it ...
- The two songs stuck in my head post-Vegas: "Dancing Queen" (which I heard in our hotel lobby and at the airport ad nauseum - make it stop!), and that one 80's disco song that's like "Don't you want me BABY! Don't you want me ... Now-ow-ow-ow!"
- On Vegas: I love how all these D-List celebrities get top billing in Vegas just because they've chosen to set up shop at one of the big resorts. I mean, everywhere we went, it was like: Carrot Top! Louie Anderson! Chaka Kahn! As if these people were the end-all be-all of entertainment! All I know is, constantly seeing these huge posters of Louie Anderson sprawled out like he's staring a plate of donuts in lust can quite possibly cause irreversible damage to one's psyche.
- On Vegas: The one thing that was slightly disillusioning is just how cheesy some of these resorts are. I remember as a kid all these Connecticut suburbanites talking about Excalibur like it was the ultimate in Vegas vacationing. Then I get there and see resort after resort that reminded me of a stripped-down version of one of those creepy Borscht Belt places that my parents used to make us go to as a kid, each with its own half-assed theme. Okay, not always half-assed per se, but most of these themed places have nothing on Disney for style and quality. So my conclusion is that Vegas has its share of cool, upscale, sleek hotels, casinos, venues, etc. But most of the Strip is CHEESY as can be.
- On Vegas: Holy lord, was it hot! The temperatures reached well over 100 all weekend, and we were sweating bullets the whole time. When I first got off the plane from LA, I was taken aback by how hot it was - I had never been outside, at night time, and felt temperatures that high before.
- My next destination - the East Coast. I will be home in Connecticut from June 30th until July 8th - so look me up.
- After that, the next weekend getaway will likely be to San Diego for my first ever trip to Comicon! By the way, I've read some good stuff lately. First and foremost has probably been Grant Morrison's early work on Animal Man, which I've been reading of late, having just finished Volume 2. Great, fun, trippy stuff, with lots of experimental 4th wall-breaking. Also gotta mention Paul Dini's increasingly awesome run on Detective Comics, which I think just reached its pinnacle thus far with this month's awesome Zatanna issue that had an amazing twist ending, one of the coolest Batman stories overall I've read in a long while, and probably one of my favorite single issues in many months.
- Finally, I'd like to mention the passing of Sherri Martel, aka "Sensational" Sherri. Sherri was one of the all-time great villains in the circus world of professional wrestling, a pioneer for females in the sport, and one of the truly great characters in a business filled with great characters. Sherri played the cold-hearted, screeching drama-queen with a mean right-hook to perfection, and rarely has there been someone who fans loved to hate as much as her. I vividly remember sitting ringside at a WWE event as a kid and listening to Sherri cut one of her trademark promos, a classic tirade that saw her cut down the crowd to the point where she was beeing booed out of the building, getting heel heat like few others ever have. My friend and I, for our part, were standing on our chairs, pumping our fists and screaming "Scary Sherri! Scary Sherri!" - Ms. Martel's most hated taunt. And then, the Sensational One looked and pointed RIGHT AT US, cocked her head back, and screamed "SHUT UP!". Suffice to say, we were smiling in giddy delight that we had drawn the ire of such a notorious villain. Sherri Martel was only in her 40's when she died this week, which makes this yet another tragic case of a sports entertainer going long, long before their time. But man, Sherri was a piece of work right up until the end - her Hall of Fame induction speech last year was one of the craziest acceptance speeches I've ever heard, made all the more surreal byt the crowd chanting "you're still hot!", showing their unwavering appreciation for the original femme fatale. Thanks for the memories, Sister Sherri, you truly were an original, and wherever you are I'm sure you're palling around with Ms. Elizabeth, breaking hearts and taking names just like old times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment