Taking a break from the wall-to-wall Vegas to let all the foodies know that this coming Monday (7/3), Travel Channel will be showing Decoding Ferran Adria as part of No Reservations. According to the Nasty Bits (which I read on the plane last week), it was the plan to film an episode of Cook's Tour about Adria that drove the final coffin nail into the deteriorating relationship between Bourdain and Food Network. Since they had the invite from Adria, he and his production company went anyway, essentially filming an hour-long show on spec. It's been available on DVD for a while but I'm glad that Travel Channel has incorporated it into the series and I'm way looking forward to watching.

still working thru my notes from Vegas

A couple of atmosphere of ambience notes: the casino at Venetian is rather aggressively scenting the air. Jasmine, I think, but so strong that the first time I was there, I thought we were walking around behind stinky perfume lady. Only to realize, no, the whole place smells like that. Quite a pong, indeed. I found it actively unpleasant and fled quickly both times. Fortunately, the noisome odors didn't extend into the Canal Shops so we were able to check out the gondoliers singing "Volare" in Italian without being overcome by the fumes. So that's two strikes on Venetian (they also closed Venus, the supercool tiki bar, and replaced it w/ some lame ultra-hyper-mega-lounge). OTOH, Venetian is home to Bouchon, so that balances a lot of sins. Moving from the olfactory to auditory, I must say I was somewhat disappointed in the background music in most places this trip. On previous trips, the Bellagio has usually been playing Sinatra, Ella or similar standards. This time they'd joined in with the consensus for VH1-Classic from wall to wall. My most common reaction was "damn, I'd forgotten how much I hate this song." Every once in a while something good would break thru -- early Madonna, the Cure once, and the top moment in musical weirdness, walking thru some casino shopping mall while "Change" by Tears for Fears was playing over the sound system. The only place I heard Sinatra, other than my iPod, was at Bally's. Which isn't that surprising - the mid-market casinos (Bally's, Trop, Flamingo, Harrah's) seem to trying, at least in part, to play up their oldschool Vegas cred. Witness the travels of Wayne Newton since leaving the Stardust.

This is a rewritten version of something I started writing while I was in Vegas last week

Since we only get to Vegas every couple of years, there are always lots of changes. One of the places I was looking forward to seeing this time was Wynn (aka Bellagio w/ a different color scheme). I’d seen it under construction when I was out in Aug 04. It’s on the site of the Desert Inn. That makes Wynn the second place where I’ve been to the imploded casino and the replacement (the other is the Sands/Venetian). I remember walking thru the DI, thinking how posh it looked, and how odd it was that they were playing Green Day over the sound system. One of the odd little similarities between Wynn and Bellagio are the signs in the casino, which use the same font. Well, Wynn built Bellagio, so I guess similarities are no surprise. He must really like that font. A lot of the floorplan (casino, shops, restaurant, conference rooms, etc) seems very similar. Wynn doesn’t have the lake and fountains, but there is a mountain and waterfall which is gorgeous, if not as impressive. There’s nothing at Wynn to match the Conservatory at Bellagio. But I did like the parasols in the atrium area. Those I think hold their own compared to the Chihuly glass in Bellagio. Wynn, of course, has the DI golf course, which I’m sure is a big draw for the golfing crowd. That also gives the non-Strip view rooms something better to look at than Bellagio (where the off-Strip facing rooms are basically overlooking I15).

Two of the other big changes in progress are the additional tower at Venetian, and the big City Center project, between Monte Carlo and Bellagio. The Venetian expansion I was expecting to be another relatively sedate tower, like Venezia. Instead it (I’d guess) close to doubles the size of Venetian, with a new room tower and new shopping. Making it much like the latest Caesar’s expansion. Anyway, Venetian is now going all the way to the corner opposite Wynn. I think they took out several oldschool, low rent properties like the Tam o’ Shanter and the Rosewoood Grille (famous for giant lobsters). Further down the street, ground’s been broken for City Center (current rumor is that when CC opens, it’ll be hosting a Cirque du Soleil show based on Elvis music). That’s shut down the tram between MC and Bellagio, which was a nice little ride. Also gone is the Boardwalk (aka the other freaky clown-head casino). Altho the freaky clown-head is gone, at least the sign is still standing. I noticed the torn-down Bourbon Street still had its sign standing. Perhaps that’s due to the Neon Museum and Boneyard. I hope so. If the city’s going to tear itself down and rebuild constantly it’s nice that at least something is being saved. Back on our first trip to Vegas, Sarah and I took this free shuttle bus downtown to see the light show at Fremont Street. The waiting room for the bus was in this little strip of shops next to Boardwalk. I had to walk over to the casino to use the bathroom. While I was gone, Sarah got the once over from the suspicious shuttle attendant who apparently thought she was a resident trying to sneak onto the free bus ride. So apparently other tourists and shuttle operators think we’re locals.

you might have heard that Sarah and I got married last week

Okay so it's now Saturday. As you can see, I've been busy being on vacation and not writing about it. Also, while getting onto the elevator the other day, I walked past a woman on her cellphone and she was having one of those "and then we did this and then we left there and did that and we played some at that casino but we didn't win much so we decided to go to the early show and..." conversations. Crom forbid I should be sounding like that here. But before I leave (at least for the moment) travelogue mode, let me point you over to Sarah's site for links to the archived webstream. It was on Tuesday. It was performed by Elvis. While it's obvious from the webstream that we can't slow dance AT ALL, it's less so in photos and screen caps. But we didn't fall over or step on each other, so now it's just a funny story. We did not bust out crying during the ceremony. Elvis complimented my shoes. My pants didn't fall down. And now we're married. Yay us! Insider tip: while Elvis performs the ceremony, he's not legally marrying you. There's actually a minister hidden just off stage who legally pronounces you married after the event. I guess it's difficult to come up with an ordained Elvis. My only regret is that during the closing dance to "Viva Las Vegas" I didn't think to do the Batusi. That would've made an awesome screen cap.

still catching up on last week's trip

When we left our story, it was Sunday night. We'd enjoyed some really good burgers and everyone was safely ensconced in their rooms at the Trop. MF-ing Trop, man! I'm trying to pay close attention to all the little things about the place that I love so much - the hall of old Vegas photos, the stained glass over the casino floor, the mermaids & shells motif over the entrance - since this might be the last time I see them. I know the Trop has no scheduled implosion date (unlike Stardust) but it seems inevitable now that the property's been sold. And you never know when the next trip might be.

Monday morning Sarah and I got up early (as is usually true, at least for the first few days of any Vegas trip) and walked around the four corners. I got some coffee. We saw a couple of happy Swiss fans on their way back, probably from watching the game at ESPN Zone in New York, New York. We met up with Pru, Lisa and Rob and we decided to monorail it up to Paris for pastries at Le Notre. Fabulous, as always. Altho many of the casinos had seemed, if not empty, at least somewhat below maximum capacity, Paris was mobbed. Big lines at almost all the restaurants. Maybe it was just a time of day thing. After powering up on pastry and caffeine, we finished checking out Paris, then went across the street to Bellagio. The conservatory was amazing. It was all trees, and logs and carved wood and model trains. I'm finding it difficult just at the moment to conjure up words to adequately describe it. Lisa called it a magical forest, and that's pretty close. Go look at some pictures maybe instead. One funny thing (to me, at least) is how surprised I was to see the way they'd decorated the conservatory. I think because if you go to Bellagio's website they have one picture for each season and I'd seen most, if not all of the designs pictured. Somehow in my mind I'd gotten the idea that those were the only designs they had and they just rotated them from season to season. Which is ridiculous, retrospectively. Of course, with the money they're spending, they're going to be doing a new design every time.

Okay, so yes I had my computer with me in Vegas last week. I brought it so photos could be downloaded. While there, I wrote up some posts on the trip. Here's the first

Monday morning in Vegas. Actually managed about 7 hours sleep which is pretty good for a first night in LV, at least for me. Travel day yesterday went pretty well. Our flight was uneventful and we landed, with a thud, exactly on time. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything went. We were checked in and sitting in our room at the Trop just over an hour after wheels down. Was unpleasantly unsurprised by the 106 heat. Insert dry heat/oven joke here. Shortly after we checked in we got a call saying room service was bringing up a gift for us, which turned out to be a lovely fruit and cheese plate that Pru had ordered. So nice! First food highlight: the perfect snack while chilling in the room after a long flight.

About the only thing I'd change is maybe all the driving back and forth to the airport to pick everyone up. On the one hand, it was nice to be able to meet Lisa and Pru and Rob when they got in. But I did start to get towards the raggedy end as the evening wore on. Unfortunately, Sarah and I were the only ones to get in on time. Everyone else had their flights delayed so lots of hurry up and wait.

Second food highlight: Dinner at Burger Bar in Mandalay Place. It was a bit too much on the noisy sportsbar tip when we got there (around 8.30) due to the Mavs/Heat game still being on. But once the group of fans at the bar decided they weren't going to hang on for OT, it quieted down. A Lot. Anyway, the burgers were amazing. Sarah and Lisa both had variations on a bacon cheeseburger - you can design your own with a staggering array of choices in all categories (meat, bun, cheese, many, many kinds of toppings). I got a bit funky and had a lamb burger with provolone, prosciutto and pesto. Fantastico!! Oh, and they have about 20 beers on tap. I had the Burger Bar Unfiltered Amber. Which I assume is contract-brewed for them by someone who really knows what they're doing. I love a good amber ale.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 18 june 06) ::

Lamp Fall :: Cheikh Lô
Zulu Rock :: Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Siete Rayo :: Descemer
the Shine of Dried Electric Leaves :: Cibelle
Extra Golden :: OK-Oyot System
III :: Yoshida Brothers
Accidentes de Latitud y Longitud :: Maneja Beto
La Cantina :: Lila Downs
the Road of Tears :: Battlefield Band
Rosa :: Rosa Passos

And let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin. At least in the general vicinity. I made quite sure to stay far away from any public broadcasts of US v. Ghana today. Being around the Mexico fans yesterday was depressing enough, and they at least were backing into the second round. I must confess I'm not all that upset. While it would've been nice to see the US advance, it's hard to argue that they deserved to. They played like reheated asswich for most of the round. They only scored 1 goal in 3 games. Hardly impressive. So (as Colbert would put it), a tip of the hat to Ghana, who will be rewarded for two nice wins against the Czech Republic and the US w/ the chance to be returned to plucky underdog status when they play Brazil. BTW, did anyone else see Japan's goal against Brazil today? That was a thing of beauty, even if the result was to wake up the Brazilians and remind them there was a futbol game on.

Wow! I don't know that this is the sort of thing that only happens in New York, but I'm sure glad it's happening somewhere...
BUBBLE BATTLE!!

(found via Gothamist)

So it looks from Bravo's website that the new season of Project Runway will be starting in about a month. I suppose it's asking too much to hope that Durham cable might have added Bravo to their menu by then.

Oh, and thanks to Alicia for reminding me about Project Runway

And, just for the why-not of it, here's a page w/ pics of Tim Gunn and some dogs dressed up in goofy costumes

This just in: NYTimes discovers DJs (again). Encourages middle-class, middle-age white people to do same with extended film metaphor.

Getting back to futbol for a moment, I must say that my fave line from yesterday's live-blogging was the observation that the referee still had plenty of time to break the previous World Cup record for sending players off. (Alas, he stopped at 3, merely tying the record)

Here's a fun T&T fansite. I'm loving the music. Alas, it doesn't seem to be downloadable. Hey, there was even a story about World Cup music on NPR yesterday. Amusing, except the host pronounced it "socka" while introducting the T&T segment of the story -- egregiously stupid since the lyrics quite clearly said "soh-ca" only seconds after her mispronunciation. Big ups to Team USA for hanging on to draw Italy today. And bigger ups to Ghana for beating the Czech Republic. I'm pretty sure that group is still completely up for grabs going into the final games.

So there's this meme running around the internets -- go to wikipedia, enter your birthday and then write down 3 events, 3 births, 3 deaths and a holiday.

Here's August 2nd:

events
first underground tube railway opens, London, 1870
sinking of PT-109, 1943
Iraq invades Kuwait, 1990

born
Wes Craven, Mojo Nixon, Kevin Smith

died
Fritz Lang, William S. Burroughs, Fela Anikulapo Kuti

holiday
Our Lady of the Angels (Costa Rica)

Just a quick note to say that about the only thing saving Serbia-minus-Montenegro from surpassing the epic Germany v. Saudi beatdown of '02 is that there's just about 3 min. left and Argentina's scoring around a goal every 5 min.

golazo, indeed

Subbed the 7-9am shift at XDU this morning for one of the occasional returns of "Wake Up and Smell the Chaos." Here's the playlist if you're interested. I had fun. Ran out of time before I ran out of stuff to play. Of course. I already had something picked out to follow Cheikh Lô and the show should have ended symetrically w/ the Femi Kuti version of "Water No Get Enemy" but that would've stretched out at least 15 min. long. It's never bad to end with some polka anyway...
I do regret that the Steely Dan vinyl was all fubar-ed and started skipping. It was a last minute idea to play "Royal Scam" and by the time I realized what bad shape it was in, there wasn't time to go back into the stacks to find another track. I'd wanted to play "Show Biz Kids" but remembered that it's indecent.

(and, yes, I do this after every show... the only difference now is that sometimes it happens here on the internets instead of inside my head)

Today was the last day this week that everyone was in the office so they all got together and surprised me with this awesome cake. (In case you missed it, Sarah and I are getting married next week). Anyway, pop over to my flickr stream to see the other side, which had the Tab logo. I guess this is what's traditionally known as a groom's cake. Sure I complain about work but I'm pretty lucky to work with such nice folks. Big thanks to Sarah McD for the cake. And to Sheri, Kevin, Steve, and Laurinda. Oh, and to Laurinda (again) for taking these pics.

Y'know what would be nice? What would be nice was if, while you're trying to get all the last loose ends for yr event/vacation wrapped up, you weren't also swamped up to yr eyeballs at work. I'm just saying...

Some linkage, then? Why not.

Bookslut has an interview w/ Anthony Bourdain. Which reminds me -- this week's episode of No Reservations went to Korea. That's waiting on the DVR. I should get around to watching that. One thing I found interesting in this interview is that Bourdain was very direct about the fact that he's not a chef anymore, that he in fact used the success of Kitchen Confidential to leverage himself into a new career. Also interesting to get Bourdain's take on why he left Food Network.

And, ay ca-frikkin-rumba! Henry "Nightmare Before Christmas" Selick is working on a film of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I'm honestly at a loss for words. On his journal yesterday, Gaiman had a link to news that French and Saunders have been added to the voice cast for the movie.

Today's World Cup didn't bring anything like the hideous beatdown of yesterday's US v. Czech Rep. game, fortunately. I'm still bummed that I missed Australia v. Japan, so far the best match of the tournament, no doubt. France v. Suisse today was so dull that I even gave up following the live blogs. Not even the Guardian's mix of running jokes and crude ethnic humor could save that mess. I was hoping that Togo could hang on against South Korea, and only partly because every time Togo is mentioned, I immediately hear "and even the tiny republic of Togo!". Did get to see the last 20 or so minutes of Brazil v. Croatia. The men from joga bonita actually looked much better on defense than expected. Of the games I've seen (or followed) where a team scored a goal and then hung on to win 1-0, I think Brazil turned in one of the better efforts. Plus it's just fun to watch Brazil (unlike, say, England).
Tomorrow, frequent underachievers Spain finally get going, against Ukraine, about whom I know nothing. Then it's African Nations Cup champs Tunisia taking on Saudi (lost 8-0 to Germany in the last World Cup) Arabia. If Tunisia advances out of group, it sets up another colonialism throwdown, with France. Plus they have way better music than SA. And we wrap up the day with Germany v. Poland. Just don't mention the war...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 11 june 06) ::

Zulu Rock :: Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Lamp Fall :: Cheikh Lô
the Shine of Dried Electric Leaves :: Cibelle
Afro Riddim Sessions, vol. 1 :: Ex-Centric Sound System
Accidentes de Latitud y Longitud :: Maneja Beto
La Cantina :: Lila Downs
III :: Yoshida Brothers
the Road of Tears :: Battlefield Band
Siete Rayo :: Descemer
Rosa :: Rosa Passos

Poured like the deluge last night, so no yard work was done today. Clearly a sign that I was meant to lie on the couch and watch futbol all morning. Saw Holland v. Serbia (since the only Montenegran on the side is injured and out for the rest of the tournament, I think we can save the syllables and just call them Serbia). Went out to run some errands and missed all of Mexico v. Iran. But that did help to keep me on target for my aim of avoiding the ESPN broadcasts of all the Iran matches in the first round. Yes, yes, I know there are important political issues involving Iran. But I just want to watch the game, not hear some sportscaster try to get all political up in my grill (I'm having a flashback to this year's Olympic opening ceremonies). Got back in time to catch the end of Portugal v. Angola (the colonialism throwdown). I thought Holland looked okay. Maybe not win-it-all great but they should advance pretty easily. Portugal didn't look as bad as England but then again that's not saying much. Serbia looked like ass. And Angola seemed much more impressive than Paraguay.

Question: who decided that "C" was Grupo de Muerte this time? (cos I'm not feeling it)

My fave fun fact for today (which I think I read on the NYTimes World Cup blog) is that Univision's broadcasters are fond of referring to the Dutch team as "la Machina Naranja" which is also the Spanish translation of A Clockwork Orange.

Seen today: second half of England getting by Paraguay. I thought England looked okay, not stunning. Reaction on the UK sites I've been reading was somewhere between horror, disgust and resignation ("oh not, not again..."). Missed the Soca Warriors of T&T laying a 90 min. beatdown on Sweden to get out w/ a surprising 0-0 tie. Have been watching on and off (while working on building some tomato cages) as Argentina is getting past Ivory Coast (or Cote d'Ivoire, or Costa de Marfil).

Moving on from futbol to Vegas, here (via scrubbles.net) is a selection of menus and programs from swanky oldschool Vegas in the 60s. I was esp. impressed to see the Congo Room.

Driving back from work today, I learned that while there doesn't seem to be any local English-language radio broadcasting of Copa matches, there is coverage in Spanish. (is ESPN radio even broadcsting World Cup?) So I got to hear the end of the first half of Ecuador v. Poland. Including the Ecuador goal. Quite a goal call there. The ghost of Andres Cantor is no doubt proud. They mentioned over on the NYTimes World Cup blog that feedback's been pretty negative on ESPN's coverage. I didn't think it was all that bad. But I will say if you were used to the kind of commentators you get for Premiere League or on Univision, I think that'd make ESPN seem kinda flat.

Hey, coolness. Ecuador just dropped in another goal, to go up 2-0. Only about 5 min. left and as flat as Poland's been, the win's probably secure for Ecuador. My pre-tournament reading suggested that the conventional wisdom was that Ecuador had little chance, as they've lost their last 11 matches not played at elevation, in Quito.

Just about four hours until the first match of Copa Mundial kicks off, w/ Germany v. Costa Rica. I'm sure the Germans will win as they're favored to. But, go Ticos! Who wouldn't want to see the tournament start out with some upset special. Well, apart from millions of Germans. Barring a hellafied day at work I should be able to make it home to see the second half of Poland v. Ecuador.

like fun

Looks like comments are broken again. At some point today the situation seems to have escalated from "error message but post" to just flat broken. Frakked if I know what's going on yet. So anyway, before I try beating my head against that particular wall, let me answer the question from the previous entry that I was trying to post as a comment which is how I found out that things weren't working.
(ETA: okay so the mysterious problem seems to have mysteriously fixed itself. I for one welcome our new database overlords...)

Isn't it interesting the things you can and can't find via googling. I had been planning to respond that I couldn't add anything about that "adjust your brain" quote. I only know it thru a Mixmaster Mike sample (one of the tracks from Bangzilla I think). But then I googled "gargoyle vine plant" and discovered that the source is actually Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot, which looks to have been a Japanese TV show, dubbed for US viewing. The 60s/70s version of Power Rangers, I guess

Now this (via boing²) is extremely cool: blogging a year of MST3K. Impressive, indeed.

And while I'm linking cool things I don't have hours in the day (or energy in my life) to accomplish, here's more fun w/ diet coke and mentos. Bellagio ain't got nothing on these guys. (thanks for the link, Bill!)

Finally, w00t! w00t!! w00t!!! Photos from this year's Kinetic Sculpture Race. It's a shame the KSR is always scheduled close to art car weekend so we end up having to miss it in the year's we go to Houston.

(note: 3 days to Copa Mundial)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 4 june 06) ::

La Cantina :: Lila Downs
Siete Rayo :: Descemer
Afro Riddim Sessions, vol. 1 :: Ex-Centric Sound System
the Echodelic Sounds of Future Pigeon :: Future Pigeon
Arriba Suena Marimba: Currulao Marimba Music :: Grupo Naidy
Son :: Juana Molina
Rosa :: Rosa Passos
Estudando o Pagode :: Tom Zé
Echu Mingua :: Anga
Take It and Drive :: Smadj

Here's a couple of music links -- from today's Times, a nice article on Fania. Salsa de Nueva York, baby! And speaking of NYC, here's possibly the event of the summer: July 23rd at Summerstage, Maldita Vecindad, Daara J, and Konono No. 1. Aiya! And that's a free concert, btw. It's not so much getting up to NYC for a Sunday that's a problem, it's getting back home to work on Monday. Still we'll see...

So I heard today that BBC will be live streaming all the World Cup games they have rights to. But, due to various international rights agreements, that service is only available to people in the UK. Feh! Looks like I'll just have to check the scores online while the matches are playing. Maybe watch some rebroadcasts in the evening. At least there will be a few weekend chances to watch live.

To wrap up the week, here's some vintage photo fun

This photo is actually a bit misleading since almost all the freesia in our garden are yellow. But the few different colored ones very cooperatively arranged themselves so that they all fit into frame. Isn't natural wonderful?

Finally got around to getting the rest of my Houston pics off Sarah's computer. I'll post those to flickr over the next few days. While doing that I also found over 100 pics I took at Houston 2004 that I'd downloaded onto Sarah's computer and promptly forgotten about. So maybe a few of those will show up here or there as well.

Meanwhile, the promised reduction in heat hasn't been all that obvious so far this week. (not that you asked...)