Other than people suffering from anxiety, Dr. Custer specializes in treating children-teens plagued with ADD.
The bumper sticker reminds me of an old Rodney Dangerfield joke:
When I was a kid I told my old man I was tired of running around in circles. So he nailed my other foot down.
*Rimshot!*
Sadly our final full day of Las Vegas. We could’ve had another but due to previous obligations in Austin (doctor appointment, concert, so on) and an error about which vacation times to take. Tried to make the best of it anyway.
Oddly, the day began with breakfast at Denny’s (a frequent hangout near the timeshare thanks to its free, yet sporadic Wi-Fi). Somara insisted on a “proper” meal to start the day. I would’ve been cool with our supplies but I wasn’t going to argue, I was going to force our video poker challenge to a tie-breaker on Monday before we boarded the plane!
The gambling venue for round six of the video poker tournament: The Luxor, home to a memorable stay in 2005 with Jose and Glenn. Their parking facility has a nice walkway going by the pool. We also went by Luxor’s weird brothel-themed, fine-dining establishment…The Cathouse. Yes, prostitution and pate seemed to be a logical combination.
Somara clobbered me to become the new reigning champion for 2010. Now we have a very solid set rule set to continue this tradition in 2011 and I’m going to win. Details of her victory are below.
We proceeded to explore Luxor and eventually Mandalay Bay. It was nice see that Austin-based Ghostland Observatory would be appearing at House of Blues soon. We would also be missing the Blondie/B-52’s show by a couple weeks. A good amount of time was killed at this odd niche shop called The Sock Market, gifts were purchased for our little Sunday-morning friends. I did get an answer regarding the Minus 5 Ice Lounge from a staffer, the temperature is metric, not standard.
Then we geeked out at the Starbucks near the timeshare to catch up, post, whatever; I had to bang out the immediacy of that Cheap Trick concert!
After we grew tired of writing and felt the sun wasn’t going to brutal on our skin, we checked out the lazy river Tahiti Village completed last year. I already clocked several laps on it Friday while Somara was napping but I wanted her to enjoy it. Definitely looking forward to this amenity on all my future stays.
Swimming made us hungry and we agreed on Italian food. What better place to go than Venetian. Back when we got married in 2003, Jose joined us at some informal restaurant we think was called Canelleto. That wasn’t it because it didn’t have a dress code last time. With this casino having Venice and Italy as its theme, finding a replacement didn’t take long. It was certainly more than what we normally paid at Olive Garden but I think they compensated in speed. Next time, should we crave Italian, we’ll investigate the joint near the timeshare.
Venetian as a casino remains impressive, especially in that it hasn’t been gobbled up by the big two corporations (Harrah’s and MGM-Mirage) yet. How it has managed to stay independent like Wynn-Encore is beyond me, I’m not an expert on the business of casinos, just losing money at them slowly. All remaining wagers for friends were completed here and we made our traditional, final bet on 27 (wedding anniversary) at roulette. Sooooo close too. I saw the ball roll in and right out of 27! It wasn’t quite the Bugs Bunny cartoon, it was the fickleness of Physics not Math. Not much of a bummer though. Financially, 27 has served us well. It has won twice, granting us $700. It has lost maybe a dozen times with losses mounting $120 at most. I jokingly state it’s an omen for the coming year. Since we didn’t win, it means we’ll just have to plan better, as we have, to kill off the timeshare, new car and final student loan.
The other enjoyable element was making a rough list during dinner about what we want to do in Las Vegas for 2011.
Gambling Report (Finale):
Chelios won’t be visiting Austin anymore since he got a front-office gig with the Red Wings. A nice finish for one of the most successful American-born players and probably the greatest US blueliners unless Johnson or Rafalski have some miraculous seasons; it’s possible with the former.
Meanwhile, Mike Modano got his one-year agreement. He’s done all he can with Dallas, namely setting records for them and American forwards. I think he just wants one more season so he can play with his hometown team (he grew up in MI). Good for him. Maybe Lindgren from our team will get a spot in big D.
I’m over Philly not scoring Turco. Staying with Leighton is probably the smarter move. He stepped up when Boucher got injured and we wont have to deal with Emery’s cancerous, injured ass. We managed to succeed with no-name goalies, I think we can again as long as the blueliners do a good job keeping the puck from being shot on goal as often. Even Brodeur will theoretically miss about once every 10 or 11 times.
If you haven’t noticed, my third official countdown is set for when my Stars kick off the 2010-11 AHL season which will be here first!
Playing their first number, "I've Smoked Too Much" at Waterloo Records.
Technically, the name is really an pseudonym for singer/songwriter (above in the red clothes) James Milne, a fellow New Zealander opening for Crowded House during their North American tour. James is a friend of Liam Finn too and he’s expected to appear on the upcoming BARB thing which includes him, Liam, EJ Barnes and a couple other young artists. Like an ANZAC supergroup; when speaking to him about it, he laughed and said all supergroups are nonsense.
I’m glad I caught the in-store performance. My once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Crowded House was during their set.
How are they? Great. What do they sound like? My immediate answer is a combination of Islands and solo-era John Lennon, listen to “Apple Pie Bed.” James has the vocal sound which draws the comparison which I don’t throw out lightly because I feel the Beatles are overused, as Paul McCartney once asked Glenn Tilbrook when they met for the first time, “Which one are you supposed to be? Me or John?” However, I told James how much he has the Lennon vibe while singing. He thanked me and said he’s a big fan of Lennon’s work.
Check out the current album Chant Darling, it’s available at better, independent record stores like Waterloo in Austin (physically or online) or iTunes.
Gussied up for Cheap Trick. It's tradition to dress up one evening, usually for a show and some carousing. The good legacy of the movie Swingers.
Saturday morning was another day to knock out the last planned thing on our agenda, the Las Vegas Gun Store. The last time we were in town, we spotted the brochure in the lobby of our timeshare. Normally a shooting range is nothing new…we live in Texas, hell, there’s a place within a couple miles of my house (Red’s of Pflugerville) but this place allows you to fire a machine gun, legally. So we had this on our short list for two years. I also received a ringing endorsement from a co-worker earlier this Summer; it was a gift from his brother. I’ll go on about the experience in greater depth because it warrants such treatment. My immediate statements: Hollywood is full of crap on how firearms are actually used, my position on gun-control is unchanged and when the zombie apocalypse comes, running would be the wiser option unless they’re the slow, shuffling Romero kind (moving targets are impossible so d20 Modern is correct to assume there’s a lot of misses with firearms).
I intentionally wore this shirt as an obscure joke poking at all sides of the Che shirt debate. Thank you Onion Store!
With our curiosity (and fun) appeased ahead of schedule, we were still filled with adrenalin and decided to carry out round five of the video poker challenge, this time at a casino I have kept putting off for 13 years, The Orleans.
Back when I lived in Las Vegas for a month in 1997, my co-workers and I resided at the Howard Johnson’s on Tropicana and Industrial (currently boarded up, good riddance). Why PowerComputing put us up there was beyond me, especially after we moved to The Orleans several days later to finish out the stint. I had only discovered too late that The Orleans was $10/day cheaper, the room was nicer (it had a desk!) and larger, the place had multiple restaurants and cheap table games in addition to the machines. Besides, it appeared to be one of the nicer, classier off-Strip places with A/B-list touring shows: Everly Brothers, Commodores, LRB, Cosmo’s Factory (CCR minus John Fogerty), etc. Having a rental car made it a feasible destination, especially on an impulse.
How is it 13 years later? I think it’s a repeat destination, namely on a non-weekend day. Somara’s reaction was lukewarm so I guess it will be with my gambling buds (Jose, Nelson, probably Aaron, I’m open to widening my circle). My positive bias was probably colored by two experiences, my near-instanteous video poker victory and their player’s club at craps doesn’t have a minimum. It took a while to find the poker machines we wanted, seems Jacks or Better isn’t popular there; the economy definitely made it impossible to look for 9/6 systems too. Didn’t matter, I won! How well, see below but I photographed my victory.
My biggest and fastest video poker win in history, $35 which would be 175% return. It was also the second time I have nailed a four-of-a-kind.
The craps table? At least it was five bucks a throw unlike the Strip’s going rate of ten during the weekends. I may not have won (I think I wiped out my poker gains there) but I had a good time. Especially when one shooter scored the hard eight. I have no idea what I accumulated on my newly issued Boyd’s card (Orleans’ parent company) but I hope to return in a year; I lost my MGM one on this trip no real loss. Oddly, the employees were ignorant of the hockey team playing at the arena attached to this casino. The Wranglers’ loss is Austin’s gain; their coach and his staff came to the Stars, bringing his winning ways of six seasons.
Back to the timeshare to unwind with lunch from a nearby chicken finger restaurant called Cane’s. I genuinely liked it, namely the sauce and crinkle-cut fries. We agreed on their claims of Texas toast being false-advertising. I slept off the carb coma on the couch, Somara got acquainted with the ongoing Nickelodeon series iCarly on the television; great to see Tim Russ in a funny role.
The curtain at Theatre d'Arts while waiting for Cheap Trick.
Afternoon led to evening and we got dressed up to attend the Cheap Trick show at Paris. A bit much? Well, it’s tradition for me to wear a suit for one evening. Usually it’s for a big event and since we passed on Cirque du Soleil again, I figured this rare opportunity to see Cheap Trick perform with an orchestra qualified. Maybe next time we’ll do it for a weeknight of gambling. It would’ve been nice to do this to celebrate our anniversary yet this year we arrived on that day, jet lag trumped formality. The awesomeness of the show was covered previously.
The guy sitting on my right gave me the anecdotal lowdown on the LV economy; his wife is a (rare) native and he arrived in 1967 with the Air Force. Matters there are rotten yet the bleeding has stopped. Some elements are rebounding thanks to tourism (the city’s primary income source for a century). Real estate remains the biggest problem. The area’s inventory continues to rise through the continuation of foreclosures while nobody is building. I told him we do our part via our timeshare. It certainly puts Austin’s situation into perspective; I wouldn’t say we’re sailing through the Great Recession as we’re probably being invaded by a flood of 21st century Neo-Okies. He closed with a reminder to spend money, not a problem in Las Vegas.
We snagged a snack, wandered about Paris to get Somara her travel mug (she envied my TI one I packed and use at work when I’m jonsin’ for Vegas) and thought about having round six of our video poker challenge. We called it a night instead, save up our remaining energy for Sunday, namely checking out the lazy river at Tahiti Village (I had visited Friday, quite nice). Fortunately, Adult Swim was on so we unwound and fell asleep to the various, confusing anime they were showing. You definitely have to catch those series from the vary beginning or you’ll never understand what’s happening with Ghost in the Machine.
Gambling Report:
This week, my personal favorite of the great five John Hughes movies about being a teenager in the Eighties (phew! quite a mouthful) turned 25 last Monday. Sadly, Alamo Drafthouse isn’t doing a special screening or anything for it. Last year I managed to take Somara to Sixteen Candles during a Girlie Night. Maybe Weird Science will be featured for a quote-along. I do regret missing the Back to the Future event, Christopher Lloyd showed up! So many questions to ask Rev. Jim, Commander Kruge and Dr. Brown.
Anyway, Weird has a huge place in my heart for multiple reasons:
It’s the only Hughes’ film I can recall ever “breaking” with reality as the story progresses. The gags in She’s Having a Baby are more like manifestations of Jake’s imagination to amplify what he’s thinking. Definitely caters to a young man’s fantasies although I never found Kelly LeBrock attractive, I was more fond of Molly Ringwald and Terri Nunn.
So the good people who run this site have a 10 question quiz about how well you think you know the movie. I got eight correct, I had a perfect score going until the last two appeared. Let me know what you received via the comments.
While digging around on this story, I recall missing the special screening at Alamo Drafthouse in 2002 when Ilan Mitchell-Smith (Wyatt) was the guest of honor. He was an English doctoral student attending Texas A&M at the time. Ilan then when on to teach at San Angelo State and moved on CSU. I actually met a graduate-school classmate of his one afternoon. She said Ilan used to run a D&D game at A&M and when she first heard his voice at orientation, she knew there was something familiar about him. Lastly, enough years have passed that his students don’t recognize him unless they’ve seen the movie, unlikely these days. I did find the little interview the Austin Chronicle had with him the preceding weekend.
Finally, I must be soft in the head to use a link from Faux News yet here’s a little piece on whatever became of the cast, should you think I’m making things up regarding Ilan Mitchell-Smith. There weren’t any real surprises for me other than Somara saying, “Robert Downey Jr. was in this?” Sadly, there’s no mention of Robert Rusler (the other guy who antagonizes the heroes with Robert) but I remember he was a cast member of Babylon 5 for two seasons as a Starfury pilot, Lt. Keffer. I’m also glad Bill Paxton went on to larger things, he stole the show as the mean, older brother Chet.
Now to dig up the box where I put the DVD or scour Netflix streaming.
With some help from my friend Jeremy who accepted a position as a MacGenius in Houston, we upgraded my Indigo iMac’s hard drive capacity from 20 GB to 80 GB (now there are iPods larger than this as a standard). Then I transferred over 2000 MP3 files I had saved to an external drive, deployed the playlist for the stream and fired it up with an audio cable plugged to the stereo. Thus the official KMAG began. It hasn’t really stopped since…except for the migrations to two other Macs, the numerous Texas thunderstorms which easily take out the Texas power grid (a mouse farting could put it offline) and once incident involving a cat stepping on the surge protector’s on/off switch.
KMAG carries on, fulfilling my private fantasy of having my own radio station and eventually I hope it will gain access to decent bandwidth for my friends to listen to it in spurts. Heck, it would’ve been nice to tap into while we were away on vacation; the NPR affiliate was rather hit-or-miss in Las Vegas. I know there’s Pandora and other options to compete with yet I can do a better job than a computer’s algorithm; programming content is an art, not a science (the science of marketing, aka getting the lowest common denominator through focus groups).
As of today, the stream is closing in on 1.1 million songs played, has surpassed the 2000 mark on new songs being introduced into it (those that are shuffled around in the Top 35, formerly 30) and contains over 8500 tunes in its playlist (also modified every week or so). Recently, I gave KMAG its own page on the site. I plan to expand this section somewhat but meanwhile, give it a glance to see what I’m listening to in the car or my iPod when I can’t tap the stream.
On to nine years, 1.5 million played songs and the stream containing over 10,000 tracks.
Today, I will be returning to work after being away from the grind for 10 days. I think it’s the longest, intentional paid break I’ve ever taken in my life. If not, it’s the first one I’ve ever remembered going this long. My traditional bulk-of-August stretches in college didn’t count because I was a student which is a partial vacation the whole time, compared to how the world works after university!
Obviously, the Las Vegas stories aren’t completed as I’ve only completed four days while we there for seven. Then there are three related ones discussing the key highlights in greater detail (the Liberace Museum, Pinball Hall of Fame and the Las Vegas Gun Store).
According to astrology, my birthday month goes until August 22 which gives me more leeway to cover 1995, the greatest birthday celebration I had since 1989 (1990-94 were mediocre at best and that’s being generous to 1993). The astrology has a good angle too.
Then there’s the conclusion to the Summer of 1985 and how I got to be a “minority” entry for college. KMAG turns eight and D&D’s major shift 10 years ago before Hasbro forced the asinine move to 4e two years ago.
It’ll be a while to bang this out. We have housesitting to wrap up (gotta’ make sure the swimming pool functions!) and I’m behind on the finances for the Maggi Republic; tally up how much the vacation actually cost (fear not, we have a savings account specifically designed to cover it, we haven’t gone into any debt for more than a couple months since we were married, 2003 was pricey).
Then there’s whatever strikes my fancy.
Crowded House: (l to r) Nick, Neil, Mark and Matt.
It took 24 years to finally see and meet them but I got the ultimate birthday present from my friend Chip of Waterloo Records (I owe him mondo cheesecake for this)!
This concert was really just going to be the closing bookend of my vacation (ending in mere hours). As soon as I heard the rumors about them coming to Austin, I made sure I made all possible arrangements to make sure I would be there. I had a big chunk of luck on my side too, may explain why I didn’t win anything big in Las Vegas.
Neil jamming away. He is a guitarist many critics often overlook due to his songwriting prowess being enormous.
I want to give a little backstory to give you an idea of why this show was uber-important, bordering on the cliche’d bucket list. I became a huge Split Enz fan in 1985 (a tale for the conclusion Summer 1985) and when Crowded House made its debut in 1986, I was hooked. I think my brother bought me the album (vinyl those days) for my 18th birthday to take to college. However, I never, never, ever got to see them live. It bordered on a curse and became a mean joke the universe played on me.
First, them coming to Milwaukee was unlikely due to that city’s tastes. Besides, they only had one record so CH would be delegated to the opening-act status despite Neil’s catalog and past associations. I was correct. They passed through Chicago with Bruce Hornsby, no thanks and I didn’t have the means being a student.
In 1987, I went to visit my parents for Spring Break in Philly. A rather boring time sitting around their condo, enduring miserable weather. The week after I was back at Marquette, CH played a show at a small club. How did I know? It was in the paper and a radio station had the live recording of them doing “Something So Strong,” I was taunted with the following Summer. I wasn’t 21 anyway and my parents would’ve done more to keep me from attending than helping.
That same Summer, I lived with Mom and Dad for about 14 weeks. It took an act of Congress to get them to allow me to see the two concerts I did see: Psychedelic Furs with Mission UK at the Spectrum (recently torn down for an overpriced shopping complex 90 percent of Philly can’t afford) and Los Lobos with the Smithereens at the Tower Theater (very historic Rock venue). Meanwhile, I figured CH was done touring America. “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” was played to death weeks ago and “Something So Strong” had run its course near the end of the Summer. I figured their label (Capitol) gave up on a third single since “Don’t” was probably the third attempt: originally I remembered MTV led off with “World Where You Live” and Brian spotted “Mean To Me” during my first semester. In short, CH was probably covering Europe or elsewhere with plans for the second album.
HA!
About a week before I was slated to return to Milwaukee, there was the big notice in the Philly paper: Crowded House at the Tower Theater with Paul Kelly & the Messengers in September/October 1987. Flying out to see this wasn’t going to happen because my parents were also in the process of moving to San Diego.
Nick Seymour, bassist and Crowded House's art director.
I never gave up though. The day Temple of Low Men hit Radio Doctors in the Summer of 1988, I had the money for the CD. Who needed food?! No memorable tour of the US or it was very scaled back since CH didn’t have another breakout single at the scale of “Don’t” or “Something” to make Capitol risk the exposure/money.
Fast-forward three years with Woodface, my personal all-time favorite CH album (the most killer, no filler) and the Best of Album of 1991 in the Picayune‘s past musical archives. Played it to death all Summer long on my stereo, CD boombox and at my job with kinko’s. Concert? Not a chance was my summation. The record is good yet more Milwaukeans were into INXS, Depeche Mode and Extreme (Nirvana didn’t make the scene until the Fall).
The Summer of 1991 was in its final month, I took the job with GDW and started making my arrangements to move to Bloomington-Normal, IL. After I was completely committed…there in the Shepherd Express (Milwaukee’s version of the Austin Chronicle): Crowded House coming to town in the Fall. To add insult to injury, they were playing at my alma mater, Marquette University’s theater, a great, more intimate place which seated less than a thousand. Overall, I thought it was going to be the usual type of Marquette concert: the venue would be packed predominantly with high school students, UWMers and other locals with tastes not trapped in the Seventies. In my experience, the average Marquettian preferred Dinosaur Rock and the Violent Femmes (the most famous from the area then). Carrie, my ex-girlfriend within weeks of relocation, rubbed salt in the wound when she told me about her opportunity to see them with the Smithereens during what was our last pleasant phone call apart.
Mark Hart, the first American and fifth member of Crowded House.
By now I was resigned to never see Crowded House. Central IL was a lame scene unless Arena Rock or Heavy Metal became my thing (I did see the Smithereens, Webb Wilder and Concrete Blonde against all odds). Chicago wasn’t too far way but it was expensive to do on a regular basis; the Lyle Lovett concert in 1992 was a major undertaking. Getting laid off at the end of 1992 also put seeing them from the backburner to the deep freeze in my life.
A year later, they passed through the vicinity as a part of Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival. A couple people from DG got to go. My inquiries about them were met with disinterest yet I waited with anticipation for the fourth album.
The remainder of 1993 passed. No new record. Eventually, the gears for my move to Austin went into motion and Together Alone appeared on AppleTree Records’ shelves a couple weeks before I left with the track “Locked Out” on the Reality Bites soundtrack.
Austin held more promise. Residents told me CH had come through in the past. My new home featured multiple, reasonably-priced venues and the population couldn’t overwhelm availability like Chicago does. Winning free tickets to Sarah McLachlan at the Backyard really raised my hopes. Too bad I didn’t own a car a couple years sooner. Sometime in the Spring of 1994 they came to the Backyard with some unknown opener named Sheryl Crow (actually her hit “Leaving Las Vegas” was being played to death then). I wasn’t completely crushed. I remained optimistic about them returning either for another swing or the next record.
Matt Sherrod, the drummer and "newest" sixth member.
The possibility of a fifth album was dashed in 1996 when Neil announced he was dissolving Crowded House. I recall he made a statement saying the band was creatively exhausted. Original drummer Paul Hester going AWOL during the last American tour didn’t help. There was a goodbye show in Australia but I chalked up this band to being another one I’d never see in my lifetime, right there with Split Enz, XTC, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, Jellyfish and the Foo Fighters (off the top of my head, I have seen many things so it’s not all sour grapes).
Luck was on my side in 1998 as I returned to Austin after a year in exile (the awful days in North Carolina, the Indiana of the South). Neil Finn released his first solo album which included a tour. Not only was Austin a stop to support it. He returned several months later for an additional exclusive acoustic-only show. The latter set encompassed just 12 cities on the premise of it being the residence of a performer he enjoys working with: Austin is home to his friend Shawn Colvin. These shows were fantastic. I made a couple new friends. Reunited with Chip (we had been buds since his Technophilia days). Learned to recognize key people who you will always see at these concerts (Finnatics or Frenz?). Lastly, I did meet Neil briefly and got his autograph (safely tucked away in my Rock Box). It wasn’t quite Crowded House despite mixing those songs into his solo sets (plus Split Enz, namely the rarity “Spellbound.“)
Neil returned for SXSW in 2002. I didn’t go yet I regretted missing the Waterloo Records in-store performance which included Wendy Melvoin (a big contributor to One Nil). Couldn’t get the time off from work and his SXSW appearance was a late-night showcase for Nettwerk Records. Again, I foolishly figured he’d come back. The past was on my side there. His friendship with Shawn, the successful shows at LZR in 1998, etc. Nope.
The universe made it up to me two years later with sold-out Finn Brothers show at Stubb’s. Other than it being my first time seeing older brother Tim, they blew me away by performing numerous songs I hadn’t had the opportunity to hear before; the fantastic record Everyone is Here wouldn’t appear in America for another three weeks, all you get officially was a three-song EP via iTunes (I’m sure illegal torrents were available).
Crowded House reformed in 2007 much to my surprise due to Neil’s 1996 statement. I didn’t care though. I was too excited to see him working with Nick and Mark again while curious about who would take Paul’s place. The first single “Don’t Stop Now,” was on target and the Dixie Chicks got to release “Silent House” too (check it out, despite Natalie’s vocals, the lyrics and cadence has Neil’s DNA all over it). Alas, their American tour passed through Austin via ACL Fest. I refused to go for reasons I’ve bitched about in length many times already yet I held out for a second pass.
Neil on the electric piano doing a number with his wife Sharon backing.
This year proved to be my vindication and full of coincidence! My birthday was last week and according to my horoscope my birthday month carries on until August 22 so I’ll stretch this to be within it the “date.” It’s also the 25th anniversary of when I bought a copy of Corroboree (because AppleTree didn’t have True Colours) and became completely hooked on the songwriting of Neil Finn through “History Never Repeats,” “Iris” and “One Step Ahead.” The whole Split Enz-Crowded House-Finn Brothers body of work became my all-time favorite stuff (the number one) and remains to this day; when I was high school it had shifted over several acts such as the Police, Berlin, Cars and Queen.
Originally, my plans only encompassed going to the Waterloo Records in-store for the opening act (he and his band deserve their own entry) Lawrence Arabia followed by getting a good spot in the queue at Stubb’s (I thought I was first, I was only second due to this really dedicated dude who had been there since 130 PM in the heat). While Lawrence Arabia was impressing me, Chip walked over and asked if I wanted his spot for CH’s meet-n-greet (a music industry thing done with radio stations and record stores, one tradition downloads isn’t killing thankfully). I just about plotzed! It wasn’t in stone though. There were some e-mails involved and a quick briefing on CH was expecting to meet industry people, not fans, therefore don’t ask intelligent, well-informed questions which would reveal my fandom. Thankfully, Liam was there and since he’s tight with Chip, it was a 99-percent certainty.
Liam Finn, Neil & Sharon's oldest son. He's an incredible singer/musician in his own right. Expect more great things from him in the future.
How was it to finally meet them? A dream come true. I only wish I wasn’t covered in sweat thanks to Summer in Central TX. Neil and Matt were very friendly. Nick is very reserve but approachable. I spoke mostly to Mark. Mostly small talk over how the tour was going? (pretty good.) Were they enjoying their time here? (Yeah, they arrived yesterday afternoon from Nashville.) Do anything fun like Alamo Drafthouse? (Ate sushi at some place up north and walked along Sixth Street.) Anybody recognize you guys? (N0.) Is that good or bad? (Oh, it’s great!) Not one of my better questions. Crowded House was a genuine treat in light of something obligatory and probably annoying with most bands. The record-label representative Ingrid was also my hero. She brought posters and sharpies for the event, as below demonstrates!
Autographs rock when you're present.
It was just spectacular for a fan-boy of 25 years like me. Being an Apple employee doesn’t hurt neither. Fielding Neil’s question about getting an iPad or waiting for the next revision required quick thinking. (I said they’re great, I wish I had one myself. However, my wife wants to wait like you. Neil’s reply, your wife is very wise then!) Mark wants to upgrade his copy of Logic, Liam is looking for a new system and Matt is going through the conversion too. It would be awesome to hear from them again, maybe develop a small portion of the rapport Chip has. Nice to see how Apple’s equipment has fans around the world and it breaks the ice.
The concert you ask…if you’ve made it through the first 2300 words…how was it? Definitely the best one I’ve seen this year because I have such a personal attachment to this act. No luck finding the setlist for it yet. What I do remember clearly was them opening with “I Feel Possessed.” They mixed it up with stuff from the current record Intriguer: “Saturday Sun,” “Archer’s Arrow,” “Falling Dove” and “Inside Out.” Neil dedicated “Whispers and Moans” to the dedicated guy in line (finally got to hear that live!). There were the hits, “World Where You Live,” “Chocolate Cake,” “Don’t Stop Now,” “Silent House,” “When You Come,” “Distant Sun,” “Four Seasons In One Day,” “Private Universe,” and “Weather With You” accompanied by Liam and Lawrence Arabia.
Neil, Mark and Lawrence doing "Weather With You."
I’m curious about the reaction Neil receives from other cities. The Austin crowd is nuts about him and he returns the favor by leading everybody into encores of the choruses which is fun. Maybe it’s Austin Pride/Ego but I don’t feel previous places have our level of enthusiasm. Hopefully they’ll over a thumbdrive of this as NYC and the EU received. What I would give to get Neil doing an impromptu version of Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack,” and what they may sound like if they go Techno on their seventh album.
The showed closed with “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Afterwards, Neil announced how Crowded House would keep playing now and skip the encore element because of the hard curfew (10:30 PM). It’s a blur except for the finale of “Better Be Home Soon” with Liam singing the last verse.
Should Crowded House pass through your city in the near future, obviously I endorse them without a moment of hesitation. Should you get to meet them like I did, enjoy it. Neil is witty and a personable.
As for me, I need to amend my FAQ due to Neil Finn being on my celebrity list.
If you made it through this. Thanks very much! I know it was long but I wanted to put this experience into its proper context and share it. Crowded House has always been a big part of my life since I was 17. I know it’s just music (Neil would be the first to say that) yet much of their work has connected with me. Everybody has an equivalent. This was mine.
Update Aug. 7, 2010: Here’s the setlist from the show. I definitely plan to make a permanent iTunes set up of this.
Spotted this nugget yesterday in the parking lot of my doctor.
Back when I was finishing high school (and I was an honor student if that means my career GPA was well over three on the four-point scale), Mom ranted on and on about how useless a degree in Communication was. Allegedly some (nameless) friend of hers had a son who had this as his major and he was now waiting tables. Then again, some economists classify what I do as the service industry/sector but I think the connotation in most Americans’ minds has the phrase synonymous with restaurant work.
I think this parent just has a sense of humor.
One of the weird dilemmas I have in Las Vegas is finding the time to gamble. Laugh all you want but it’s what keeps the lights on in this city despite all the corporations taking over the casinos from the Outfit (at least the food was cheaper when the latter ran things). Due to a little spat we had on my birthday, Somara and I agreed to go our separate ways for a couple hours on Strip to hit the games we prefer.
I tend to wander from spot to spot, undeterred by the heat (100+/38+) and my more regular exercising keeps me from being as easily exhausted. It’s also a legacy from my earlier days in Austin when I didn’t own a car. Besides, one of the places I know where my craps money will last longer ($3 at Casino Royale) bores Somara. My wife prefers the video-based machines which are in better shape at the newer joints.
So the plan for Friday was to park at the Fashion Mall, drop by the Apple Store to check our e-mail, grab a snack if needed, hit the ATM for additional cash to cover other people’s wagers, tips or anything else plastic can’t be used on, play round four of our video poker tournament at TI (I lost, see below) and then part ways for two hours. Meet back, plot the next step.
Obviously, I meandered to Casino Royale because a $5 craps table on a Friday is pretty unlikely. It was a pretty good time there. The employee on my side resembled Telly Savalas (Carmine) and he was pretty witty. I’m still figuring out the proper lingo to avoid sounding like a rube. Next trip, I am leaving Somara at the timeshare in order to get some lessons one morning. Candidates to accompany me will be either Jose or my brother-in-law Aaron (wish I knew he liked craps sooner).
What I do know:
Why lessons though? As resident comedian George Wallace says, gambling at the tables is easy. You put the money down, they take it off for you, it’s that simple. True and funny but here’s the thing, I know losing is in the stars otherwise Las Vegas wouldn’t exist, I just prefer to lose with style while having a good time. Nonetheless Carmine and a delegation of people from San Antonio proved to me why I love the socialization table games provide with this interaction:
Shooter is getting ready to roll for a new session (probably the wrong term). Meanwhile, I have $3 on six and I ask Carmine about it.
“Is my bet on six dormant?”
“Dormant? We wouldn’t know that term sir. That’s a five-dollar word and this is only a three-dollar table.”
(Laughing) “Sorry, I don’t know the right word. I just want to make sure I’m losing with class.”
“Not dressed in that shirt sir.” (One of my favorite gambling shirts, the faction from San Antonio got their picture taken with it.)
After my hour expired, I colored up (not bad, only lost six clams for the whole duration and I won a hard eight for Kate on her birthday), tipped the crew, placed another couple roulette bets for friends and headed back North along the Strip to see the action at Harrah’s and Mirage. I spotted a $5 table at Mirage too. Once we rendezvoused at TI, Somara agreed to go back to Mirage and let me play 40 minutes. Should’ve quit while I was ahead, the table was cold and I lost $47 yet I had a good time, finally playing where we got married.
While returning to the mall, I entertained a little girl going into the Mirage by mistaking her for Dora the Explorer (she had the hair style). She enjoyed the attention and her parents laughed. Another quick check of e-mail at the Apple Store, by then it was packed to the entrance. Witnessed a couple iPhone 4 activations (hooray! I own stock!).
Back at the timeshare, Somara took a nap and I decided to investigate the recently built lazy river (I think it opened in 2009). Pretty sweet. I was satisfied with three laps and read some more of this issue of Scientific American I’ve been stuck on since my subscription started.
With Friday being one of the two worst nights to hit the Strip, we had our traditional steak dinner at the Outback across the street. Sure, we have this chain in Austin but we’ve been boycotting the closest one in Round Rock because of a bad experience and the real ones at the Casinos are a la carte with everything. It’s a great meal since I’ve had the opportunity twice courtesy of my wife at Harrah’s and my friend Glenn at Luxor (I paid him back with at least two dinners). I’m glad we discovered the joys of Texas near my house, I don’t know if Outback’s prices got jacked again or we were paying Nevada prices.
Dinner was followed by another visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I barely made a dent in the $20 of quarters the first time so I was going to somehow spend it all. At least I know I still suck at Space Invaders, Tempest, Robotron 2084 and Tron. Pinball was more successful as I won free games off of Bases Loaded, South Park, Simpsons Pinball Party, Bugs Bunny’s Birthday Bash and Star Trek 25th Anniversary. Just like the show, with South Park I learned something that night. The machine had another set of buttons under the flipper ones and with them you can temporarily block the gate which takes the ball out of play. I definitely milked those to keep launching the ball off the flippers’ sweet spots on to ramps for mondo points.
As closing time loomed at PHF, we called it an early evening (by Vegas standards, midnight) since we were going to need our energy with Saturday morning, the Las Vegas Gun Store followed by Cheap Trick in the evening.
Gambling Report:
Before and during my vacation I made the effort to do all the exercises Doyle told me to pursue at least five times a week. (Looking at my iCal file, I did!) The result? One more thing to add to the routine: this really weird thing which proves I’m even more uncoordinated than I want to recall.
The bigger surprise was him telling me this was the last session. Not due to insurance refusing to pay for anything further…for a change. There weren’t going to be any more new exercises and I could carry this on myself. Should my back improve and/or feel better, I can scale back the series of exercises from five-to-seven days/week to three-to-five days/week. I did let him know about the setback I felt hauling my luggage yesterday; it was that weird heavy-gravity sensation in the lower regions. Doyle could relate because we agreed on Southwest having a rotten location at the Las Vegas Airport.
How do I feel? Relieved and bummed. Thankfully the relieved emotion is stronger. I do have some recourse. Should I need Doyle’s assistance again, I have up to 60 days to return without a doctor’s referral. Sounds like a plan. It would be easier if another refill of painkillers came with it or a hot tub to soak the soreness away like the timeshare has.
Being in a hockey blackout zone despite all the connectivity I had with friends via my iPhone and Vegas having decent 3G unlike Austin, I didn’t know the Blackhawks were already planning on getting Turco. I should’ve known better. The Chicago franchise has a reputation for walking away whenever arbitration goes agains them, Kyle Calder quickly comes to mind and that time it worked out; he ended up being traded to Philly for Michal Handzus and was snakebit so he was then relegated to the Phantoms before we traded him to Detroit.
I’ll live. It seems rather funny though. Chicago proved they could win with a nobody goalie yet they just crapped on him and got a big name contrary to what happened this Summer. No, it’s not funny, it’s sad because they thought Khabibulin would bring them a title too so it shouldn’t be a shock they’ll plan on a two-peat only to end up missing the playoffs while really repeating another 48-year drought…unless the NHL engineers them to win again like 1961 or the 2009 Penguins.
Now what will be Holmgren’s next move?
Correction: I had the incorrect year for when the NHL rigged the Stanley Cup to keep Chicago from folding. That’s what I get for not checking Wikipedia while hanging in the Las Vegas airport.
The first victory of the trip goes to Angie! My friend at Waterloo Records. She wanted 29 so I went for it on 7/29, an excellent choice in my opinion.
Finally, the other major reason why we came to Las Vegas, to celebrate my 42nd birthday. If this factoid I once heard from a Raymond Burr movie is true, every atom in my body has changed out since 2003, the last time I was here for my birthday. So far, searches via Google hasn’t been able to refute nor back this claim and one friend with a PhD in Chemistry wasn’t sure. Regardless, we’ll take it as a theory (close to factual) until otherwise. Thus, I kick off me, Version 7.0 in Las Vegas! Version 6.0 was off to a great start but vacationware patches were needed through a Vegas trip in 2005, 2006 and 2008. I think Version 7.0 will fare better, than 6.0 or Windows 7.
Thanks again to all of you who sent me birthday wishes through my site, Facebook and e-mail. I loved it all so much that I copied, pasted and re-posted them into Picayune before I went to bed on my birthday; thankfully the Denny’s under my timeshare has free WiFi yet you have to re-authenticate about every 20 minutes. You people rocked. It resulted in my birthday post receiving 31 Comments, easily a record I doubt will be beaten; the previous champ is like four.
With Day 2 being rather busy, we took a more laid-back approach. First was breakfast at Paris, the only other buffet we go out of our way to eat. Always get there early, say before 830-9 AM. If you don’t, you’ll be in queue for a while. Paris is the only breakfast I look forward to in Las Vegas because there’s a station with a person who makes personal crepes. There’s other stuff too: eggs benedict, apple-smoked sausage, pate, etc. Overall, don’t count on eating until evening and I would recommend at least an hour of walking.
We then proceeded to place more friends’ wagers. This trip I counted 16 individual bets in the five and 10 dollar range. We also spread them out over time, about two or three per day. Paris seemed like a good place as any, besides, I wanted to look into the Cheap Trick show I had seen on the way to the rental car complex. Here was the first (and sadly only) victory of the trip. Angie of Waterloo Records wanted 29 and I decided, why not go for it on the 29th, my birthday! Good thing my hunch was successful. Looking back, I had the same result for Kate in 2003. I placed 13 for her on my birthday at Aladdin! I certainly need to do this every birthday.
Quitting while we were ahead, I inquired about the Cheap Trick does Sgt. Pepper show at the box office. I figured there were plenty of those $50 seats as per the billboards yet I asked for the closest thing to the stage. When the nice lady said fourth row, I quickly begged Somara to let me buy these $125/each spots and have it count as my gift to myself. How could I pass up the opportunity to sit in row DD, seat 29! (She got 30.) You know the rest of the Cheap Trick story.
We meandered north up the Strip to TI where Somara beat me for round three in our video poker tournament. Angie and Cheap Trick must’ve consumed the remainder of my birthday luck! I did place my futures bet on the Flyers to take the Cup next season and the same wager for my friend Brian with his Red Wings; why not? A Flyers v. Red Wings rematch for 1997, certainly will be more interesting than Flyers v. Blackhawks since the latter’s lineup has already shifted by a third.
By then it was past noon (PDT, 2 PM back home) so we went back to our room for a nap; sleeping was a key objective of this vacation. When the alarm went off we went on a quest to locate a Starbucks because our timeshare’s WiFi is Clear and they charge $7/day or $40/week. Maybe we’ll look into it next time.
The rest of my birthday was spent online at two different Starbucks; the first on Amigo and Warm Springs closed at 8 PM. The friendly staff told us the other we went to at Eastern and Pebble was 24 hours. Spending the remainder reading e-mail, posting, etc. was no big deal. I wanted to check on things at work quickly because every time I come back from a vacation, there’s a few hundred messages to sift through. It’s easier to look every two-three days, then my return day doesn’t have the first half bogged down in an electronic triage.
The other online element though is my favorite. I love to post stories about all the fun we’re having. Not to rub it in, to share it with all my friends. Maybe I should ask the cash-strapped city of Las Vegas for a raise due to all the publicity and enticing I do for them?
Reading all the great wishes was touching and awesome too. Maybe there’s something magical about the number 42, other than the worn-out, Douglas Adams nerd joke.
Gambling Report:
I’m pretty behind on my updates regarding how cool this Vegas 2010 vacation is going but I wanted to show off my zombie-killing prowess with a shotgun. The scope helped greatly with nailing Roxy (its name on the paper) around the mouth and neck regions. At least the zombie will have trouble biting me despite my inability to incapacitate it with the more effective head/brain shot.
