Great acting gig: Stable, union,and enough makeup to preventtypecasting Since I am not a die-hard Star Trek aficionado, I might have gone my whole life without entering the parallel universe inside the Las Vegas Hilton. In fact, I didn’t even know about the Star Trek Experience until I shared a bench with a Ferengi on a [...] Continue reading »

I can’t forget the first time I opened a Las Vegas Review Journal and caught sight of the guy with the eye patch. “NORM!” the above-the-fold headline shouted. Too silly, I told myself as I scanned the short paragraphs crammed with names in bold-faced type. Why should I care whether Don Rickles ate lunch with [...] Continue reading »

24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas by Andrés Martinez On April Fool's Day in 1998, Andrés Martinez took $50,000 out of a bank in Manhattan and headed for Las Vegas. Martinez was not a high roller—at least not yet—but he had succeeded in selling a publisher on the idea of taking a big wad of cash to Las Vegas, gambling with it, and writing about the experience... Continue reading »

Since the DARPA Grand Challenge was first billed as a race "from Los Angeles to Las Vegas," I'm considering it a local event. This is very generous on my part, seeing as how... Continue reading »

Ein prosit, ein prosit: HB comes to Vegas It’s official now, so raise a toast—er—prost—to the new Las Vegas Hofbräuhaus. It’s been open since January, but the grand opening was last night. About a thousand invited guests gathered to watch a ceremonial keg get tapped, listen to oompah bands, and sample a groaning board of wurst, [...] Continue reading »

First Friday at the Arts Factory In the world at large, by which I mean people I talk to when I visit Los Angeles, the words “Vegas” and “Art” are mutually exclusive. “Kitsch” is about as far as Californians will go in complimenting Las Vegas style. “Oh, I know,” they say, when you remind them that [...] Continue reading »