Category: Entertainment

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I do like some things about this town!

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I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. I wasn’t planning on doing a photo essay. So I left the Nikon in the hotel room.

Too late I realized there were some interesting photo ops.

SO I figured it was time to learn how to better use the camera in my iPhone.

Las Vegas is a place where you buy a Stetson, and they serve you Jack Daniels.

This is of course probably necessary, have you seen the price of a Stetson 20X lately?

Not that I’m complaining, Stetsons hold up for ever with minimal care and I wear mine a lot in the snow & rain of winter and early spring.

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Las Vegas is a place where if I lived here, I’d walk or ride my bike more than I drove.

Traffic is nuts, but walking isn’t too bad in and around the center of town. That being said, once you get out of the unreality of the strip Las Vegas is a pretty normal slice of suburbia.

The thing is, like most of suburbia it’s spread out and homes are usually at a distance from business areas. So it’s still possible just as in California that covering the distance from “home” to work would be impractical walking or riding a bike. Is it any wonder we’re becoming a nation of fat asses, myself included?

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The tramway is cool but it should really go a lot further. I think it would be great if they made it connect all of the “Strip” even if you had to walk through casinos to access the next station. I think they’d have to do that because of the shapes of the hotels and the layout of the strip itself.

Right now it just goes from The Monte Carlo to The Bellagio. You can access Caesars via a bridge and then walk on to The Flamingo. I didn’t explore much further than that.

I will say this, it’s very disconcerting to get off at “Crystals” (A mall) after having had a drink or two. God help you if you also had recently taken Viagra because you’d be absolutely sure you were going blind. Or perhaps having a flashback to your drug hazed hippy phase.

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FYI, It’s not you… the lighting changes to blue, pink, and a couple of other colors. But at night when you exit the tram into that intense color it can really mess with you.

The weird thing about the casinos is that after a short time they all look alike.  They’re on the darker side and they’re a labyrinth of tables and machines & lights. Even the faces of the people begin to blur together after a while.

Instead of perceiving the “grandmother in the corner happily playing the two cent slots” she becomes “generic old woman type #5 playing slots” it’s weird.

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Where the Casinos excel is in their shopping  and hotel areas.

I really like Caesars Palace! Yes, it’s all a big set piece but I like the marble and columns. I like the statuary and I appreciated the illusion of an open sky in their mall.

You have to understand these are all pretty high end shopping centers and I’m betting that they make money hand over fist.

The traffic through these places is very high and I noticed that in almost every one of the mall areas, there were Tiffany’s, Coach, Vuitton, and half a dozen other high end vendors.

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I even sampled the latest in Tom Ford scents. Although the sales lady spritzed me with some really nasty floral smell.  I washed it off in the mens room, rather, I tried.

The thing about really good colognes, & perfumes is that they’re made with more oils and far less alcohol. This means; first, that you need very little. Second that it soaks into your skin almost immediately, and stays with you for a long time.

The sales lady did me a favor. I like tobacco & wood scents, they work for me.  Gardenia is just right out of the picture. Gardenia is exactly what one of the major components of the cologne she spritzed me with was. Just as well, had I stayed I’d have probably purchased one of the new Ford scents, they’re pricy! a single bottle lasts a long time but it will put a dent in your budget.

IMG_0254I did enjoy the art and architecture of the shopping centers.  I liked Crystals the best, they’ve got a nice open air plan and some really cool or dramatic architectural elements.

Yeah, I’m not a gambler. Could you tell?

I’ve gambled, I’ve put quarters in slot machines, I’ve even won!

The odds are so not in your favor. While I enjoyed the heck out of spending a few quarters, winning, then spending the next few hours losing my huge $40.00 winnings, I can’t see it as a regular thing.

I like walking through the hotels, and shops, and treating Las Vegas like a Disneyland-esq place for adults.

I like being able to drink anything, almost anywhere on the strip. I like the general feeling of immorality of the city. I like that you can offend someone, (as my brother did by carrying a beer in a plastic cup into the elevator going up to the room.) and that they can’t really do or say anything about it.

I guess the bottom line is that I enjoyed the trip. I needed the time with my brother. I needed the time away.

As always when I come back from trips like this I ask myself why I don’t take more short trips more often.

I’m not sure that I have an answer. I guess it has to do with the other half not having weekends off and while I was working, not being able to take time off during the week.

I suppose that over time, that scheduling conflict has created a habit and the habit became a “normal” way of life.

I’m thinking it’s time for me to break that habit and do more. I need to find a traveling buddy, and spend more time doing fun stuff.

Time is the one thing we can never get more of.

Don’t waste yours.

 

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The weekly roundup…

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No War! (Well, no additional war)

The Syrians claim a victory. The Russians show diplomacy, The Americans show??? What?

I’m still amazed that the possibility of us going to war, (regardless of what the White House says it would have been a declaration of war to bomb or fire missiles in to another country during their civil war) over what was clearly an internal conflict was ever a matter of discussion.

I’m glad that cooler heads prevailed. I’m somewhat stunned that the cooler head apparently belonged to Vladimir Putin. But I’m glad nonetheless.

Apple announced new iPhone

Wallstreet unimpressed. Microsoft takes advertising pot shot at Apple and demonstrates yet again that they are completely disconnected from the real world. As an ancillary point they demonstrated that their sense of humor is somewhat childish.

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Windows Surface? How’re those sales guys? I saw Microsoft is offering a $200 trade-in for iPads if you purchase one of their tablets. Talk about not being able to give ’em away.

iPhone 5c phones have not sold out during pre-order. That’s a bit of a first for Apple. I find myself wondering if the smartphone market is saturated. None of the smartphone offerings from any manufacturer have been particularly dazzling.

I take that back, Samsung had a dazzlingly bad, perhaps embarrassing is a better term for it introduction of the galaxy s4.

But the smartphones in & of themselves have become somewhat homogenous.

Yes as I’ve mentioned, I’m probably going to go iPhone, but this time around it’s not because its an iPhone, but because I’m heavily invested in Apple tech and it’s just a lot easier to have a single environment to deal with.

Colorado

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Colorado in addition to the flooding also recalled two politicians from the state government over gun control.

Whats amazed the hell out of me in this is that Twitter came alive with Gun control discussions but very little was said on either side of that discussion about the flooding or loss of life.

This re-ignition of the gun control discussion is rather like an endless repetition of a bad Gilligans Island episode. The discussions have begun to bore the hell out of me because they’ve become formulaic.

Gun Control Advocate: Guns are bad, there are too many children dying, guns don’t make us safer, the 2nd amendment is dated and no longer relevant, we need more gun control, no-one needs an assault rifle that can spray bullets to kill people, Only the military needs guns… on and on they regurgitate the same tired and more often than not erroneous sound bites that the media and politicians have spun to reinforce their position on gun control.

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Pro Gun person: Criminals are bad guns are not, yes there are too many children dying but it’s not because of responsible gun owners. Guns do make you safer if this were not so why then are “Gun Free” zones also places with the highest national crime rates? Existing Gun control laws would be sufficient IF the state & federal governments would enforce the laws already on the books. Define assault rifle. So called assault rifles do not “SPAY” bullets they are not machine guns, the fire one bullet with each pull of the trigger. The 2nd amendment is not outdated, The 2nd amendment was about providing the ability of the people to protect themselves from a tyrannical government. And on & on until the cows come home.

In point of fact gun related deaths are by the FBIs & CDCs reports overall down. The CDC report really disappointed the Obama administration because it took the legs out from beneath their arguments for stricter gun control.

But since the CDC report refuted the “Collective Wisdom”, very little media attention was given to the CDC conclusions. And the beat goes on…

There’s a saying… don’t confuse someone with the facts.

I’ve gotten bored with the whole gun debate because it’s not a debate. It’s one side misrepresenting one set of facts and the other side trying to refute specious arguments.

At this rate, the politicians will remove the 2nd amendment provisions while no one is looking and screw us all for a couple hundred votes.

Then they’ll wring their hands and rend their clothing when the whole country has a crime rate like Chicago’s and ask what went wrong. I’m sure at that point we’ll hear calls for stricter penalties, laws and god knows what else.

In other Gun News…

The idiots in the California legislature have sent a bill to the Governors desk that would ban kits designed to make rifles look like assault rifles.

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Yep, you read that correctly. It will now be illegal in California to BOLT on plastic or metal bits designed only to make a legally owned rifle LOOK like an assault rifle.

They’d have done more of a public service making people with face lifts gone wrong illegal in public.

This does nothing but demonstrate how almost incomprehensibly stupid the people running this state are. Or it demonstrates that these people do actually understand the difference between and “Assault Rifle” and a regular hunting rifle and have an agenda to remove both from the hands of the public.

NewImageThey’re also after removable magazines, I have no doubt that they will broaden their focus from rifles to pistols leaving the only legal option for Californians a revolver.

After all a revolver is “old timey looking” and therefore not nearly as dangerous.

They’ll be forced to legislate more when they realize that a .357 magnum is a revolver that contains 8 rounds. Or that a .44 magnum is a revolver too and it contains 6 rounds.

Harry Callahan: I know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking “did he fire six shots or only five?” Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself a question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

The point is, much like a Ferrari vs a Hundai, it’s not so much what the gun looks like… its how it performs.

Our legislators don’t understand this.

Condoms in Porn

These have been some back page articles.

Another porn actor has been diagnosed with HIV. And the CONDOM heads are all a dither pointing to this as reason that their NewImagecondom law in pornography should be extended from just LA to all of California.

What they didn’t point out is that the two porn performers recently diagnosed with HIV 1 man , 1 woman were romantically involved in their private lives. Also not mentioned is that the porn industry required medical screening turned up the HIV before these folks had a chance to spread the infection on set,  and that the screening is routine, broad spectrum (looking for HIV and other STDs)

LA County is noticing a drop in the number of permits for Porn film shoots as well.

While surrounding counties are noticing an increase in permits. Additionally more porn studios are filming completely outside California.

Miami, Phoenix, and Las vegas seem to be popular destinations.

Other studios are noticing that condom porn isn’t necessarily affecting their bottom line. However for aficionados of bareback it’s likely bareback production studios will be leaving LA if not California.

For that matter other studios may simply leave the state “preemptively” anticipating onerous laws and regulations. After all why NewImagespend money on permits, in California when you can go to Phoenix or Las Vegas and do your filming unimpeded.

Then there’s this, while you can force condoms to be used in a film… you’re not going to be able to force people to use them in their personal lives. So are these laws really doing all that much good? Or are these laws nothing more than a renewed puritanical movement?

The actors themselves are pretty free to choose how they engage in sex.  I know of several male actors that do solo shows only. The same is true of using condoms or not.

I find myself questioning again and again how many laws like the LA Condom law are about “public safety” and how many are simply about puritanical squeamishness.

So that’s it folks.

These are the odd bits of news that penetrated my thoughts this week. On the plus side I managed to miss all of President Obamas speeches. On the minus side… HEY! There is now down side to that!

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Main Stream Media sucks!

Most of the people I talk with agree that the Main Stream Media has become universally bad. Alright, most describe it as useless.

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During the Sharp fire, for example. The media reported streets that were being evacuated, but never once bothered to look at a map while writing the text or reporting on the fire.

Instead of saying something simple like “The Mandatory evacuation area is all streets along East Canyon extending South of Orchard. These streets include Mt Mahogany, Slippery Elm, Buckthorn, and Mojave Scenic. Voluntary Evacuations extend North of Orchard to Lausanne Drive, The Portion of Chaumont East to Basel Dr and West to Orchard, and the portion of Summit Dr North to Easter Dr.”

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This would have made it very clear to the people of town what area was involved and the extent of the area. All It would have taken was a journalist looking at Google Maps. OR actually asking an information officer at the command post to point out the area. 

I suppose that the ability to construct a cogent sentence might have helped…

Instead what we got was a confused mess of street names and directions that mislead people far North of the Evacuation zones (Mandatory and Voluntary) to believe that fire was sweeping toward them and they were going to die! 

In other words… PANIC People PANIC NOW! 

The really sad part is that not only was the Medias’ coverage virtually useless to the local residents who were trying to comply with the orders, the coverage panicked people who have vacation or retirement homes throughout the town but who don’t live in the town. 

So in the midst of packing, and seeing to the elders who needed help evacuating, and securing the homes of neighbors on vacation and weekend residents, the full time residents were also answering the phones giving people the real un-panicked rational version that we got when we asked a hotshot crew or sheriff as they passed by.

A story, that was in fact far more calm and coherent.

Yes, we are probably going to order an evacuation. No we don’t think the homes are in all that much danger. We’re concerned that with the narrow streets, plus our moving heavy equipment up here that if the winds kick up & the fire spreads, we wouldn’t be able to get the residents and ourselves out without people getting hurt. There are simply too many variables for us to feel comfortable having the fire this close to occupied homes.

As always there were 1 or 2 people that stayed regardless of the mandatory nature of the evacuation request. 

Not once did the media say anything useful like “The evacuation is for your safety.” or ask the question of one of the people not evacuating “What is your plan if the fire should get below you, cutting off your only route of escape?”

The media failed to look at the human interest stories like the neighbors checking on the elderly and making sure that they weren’t forgotten or the residents of the town opening their homes to many of the evacuees.

Another angle of the story would have been to ask the fire and police what they thought of the residents orderly evacuation. This would have provided an opportunity for the Firefighters to speak about the importance of having an emergency plan. It would have allowed the police an opportunity to explain what their role is after an evacuation. For example that they stay and protect the empty neighborhoods.

I’m not a journalist but these are all useful points that could have been made instead of “FIRE OMG FIRE OMG FIRE PANIC!” 

It’s not just the fire, I use this as an example because it’s fresh in my mind and I have direct knowledge of it.

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You can see evidence of “Spin” and bad reporting or fact checking all the time. Compare the reporting of an event in Germany from a US news source and then read about the same event in a German news source. (Many German news sources have well written English versions.) 

Sometime the difference is startling. 

US Media: “Merkel SLAMS Greece over finances”

German Media: “Merkel spoke firmly with Greek officials about their financial plan”

I read those two sentences as very different. In reading the full article Merkel was annoyed with the vagueness of parts of a report the Greek banking officials presented, but she wasn’t pounding her shoe on the conference table.

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Not that Germans commonly do that, it’s more of a communist Russian thing. (If you don’t get it, look up Nikita Khruschev and the quote “We will bury you”.) 

Recently, we’ve seen too many examples to count of what my high school English and History teachers called “Yellow Journalism” around the issues of guns and gun control in America.

To the Wikipedia definition I would add a specific paragraph about media affecting national politics by “Spinning” reports which are full of confabulations then later conflating those same reports to control or influence public opinion.

Many people have become so fed up with the media in general that they’re not watching the news.

Some people have gone so far as to turn off their cable and satellite. Many more people no longer read the newspapers. These groups rely instead on the information that they obtain from Google News, and other online media sources.

This lack of readership, or viewership appears to cycle back upon itself causing ever more sensational headlines and a “News” media that is skewed far more toward entertainment than toward providing facts.

Which leads to more people turning away from the Main Stream Media in all it’s forms, leading to more sensational, salacious headlines in 72 point type.

I’ve often thought about the humorous aspects of a newspaper that kept increasing the headline type size until eventually they only had one letter per page and all meaning was lost. Oddly, it didn’t have to go that far for all meaning to be lost. All it took was a texting generation. (I hart u y u no hart me)

Reading about the LAUSD deployment of iPads in the schools, I cringe in anticipation of the reporting and writing style in a decade or so. I’ll be writing a blog about that soon.

Turning to the internet isn’t the best choice either… As I’ve written previously, any idiot can post something to a blog. Case in point… the blog you’re reading right now.

This blog is a purely entertainment, opinion driven, bit of writing. It’s not in any way a proper news source, thankfully it’s not widely read given some of the typos I’ve failed to notice.

Were I to write news articles I’d probably never see them published because they’d be pretty dry. The details of a water project only rarely become salacious, it usually takes a body being uncovered by a work crew. Even then, how you describe such a  discovery can be titillating or simply factual.

The same pressure to garner attention is present in internet news sources. It’s all driven by the same thing… Money.

Look at the side columns of a web page or the annoying floaters you see on almost any article you click on and it’s about advertising. And therefore about enticing the reader to remain on a web page long enough to see the ads.

This driving force hasn’t changed since the beginning of newspapers.

What has changed is the quality of the writing and reporting.

The change has not been for the better.