Living Las Vegas

At Home in the City of Lights

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Top Vegas Hotels: Bellagio, Luxor, Rio

Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

Pinball Wizards

I stopped by the Pinball Hall of Fame this evening. Okay, come on! Tell me you aren’t envious that I live in a city that has a freakin’ PINBALL HALL OF FAME! Unless you live here, too, I’m willing to bet you can’t just casually drop into an ordinary-looking strip mall and find 200 pinball machines from every decade since their invention, all in working order and waiting for you to drop in a quarter (well, sometimes a couple more) and start the ball bouncing…

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Book Review: Breaking My Silence

Breaking My Silence: Confessions of a Rat Pack Party Girl and Sex Trade Survivor, by Jane McCormick and Patti Wicklund
I just finished reading this disarming and painfully revealing memoir of a high-end Vegas callgirl. I followed Jane McCormick, ably assisted by the writing talents of Patti Wicklund, through her childhood, which was marred by her stepfather’s horrible abuse. It’s difficult to read about a full-grown Marine molesting a three-year-old, and even more depressing to follow along as the sexual mistreatment continued over a period of years. Sadder yet is the…

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The Elfman Cometh

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has been part of my morning ritual since I moved here. Early on, I noticed that the music reviews by Doug Elfman were always excellent. Not only did the guy write with a fluid pen, he said stuff that was worth paying attention to. And in addition to posting brilliantly creative negative opinions, his accolades were marvelous, too. It’s rare that a reviewer is equally gifted at panning and raving, but Elfman had the knack…

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It’s (Always) Showtime!

One great thing about living in the shadow of the Strip is that you can go to a show almost any time you get the urge. The only limiting factor is the price. With tickets running anywhere from $20 to more than $200 apiece, a serious show habit could easily compete with a recreational drug addiction. Fortunately, there are a few ways to reduce the cost of entertainment besides the time-honored method of gambling a lot and getting “comps” …

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Out With the Old, In With the New

I still can’t claim I’m a Vegas native, but early Tuesday morning, I took one small step closer to feeling like one. I headed to the Strip to watch the New Frontier come tumbling down. It was my third implosion since I began living in Las Vegas, and the second one I’ve attended this year…

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