Kimo’s Vegas
Rick Dale. Photo from Kimo Akane
WELCOME TO Kimo’s Vegas … the Player’s Edge!
THE MICHAEL JACKSON EXPERIENCE goes live beginning Sept. 8 at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. The display features the King of Pop from the Jackson 5, the Invincible era and This Is It. If you share the same birthday (Aug. 29), show your ID for a free ticket.
THE HISTORY CHANNEL’s “American Restoration” is now open in the Downtown Las Vegas Arts District. Look for Rick, Tyler and the gang in their working shop on Commerce Avenue. It’s open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
HURRICANE IRENE had airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia closed for the weekend. More than 13,000 flights and 650,000 people were affected, and experts estimate that the storm will cost the airlines $200 million in lost revenue.
THE SECOND ANNUAL FOOD & WINE All Star Weekend is happening Oct. 21 to 23. Hosted by Gail Simmons, the weekend will include the talents of Bravo’s Top Chef, cheftestants Stephanie Izard (Best New Chef and Top Chef), Angelo Sosa, Hosea Rosenberg, Yigit Pura and Sam Talbot in addition to ARIA and Bellagio super chefs Shawn McClain, JeanGeorges Vongerichten, Julian Serrano, Michael Mina, Masa Takayama and Sirio Maccioni. Events include Blackjack at The Deuce Lounge (ARIA), where each chef will host a table where you can sample cocktails, desserts and play 21.
DIDJA KNOW on average it costs about 60 percent more for nonresidents to play golf in Las Vegas?
IN JANUARY, the French restaurant Alex, named after its award-winning chef Alex Stratta, closed. Now the second shoe drops and the chef announces that he and the Wynn are parting ways. Can a new name for the Italian eatery that bears his surname, Stratta, be far off?
YOU’VE PROBABLY GOT one or two of ’em an unclaimed slot ticket for a nickel or 37 cents. What happens to the money from all those unclaimed TITO (Ticket In Ticket Out) tickets? Right now the casinos keep the estimated $43 million in uncashed loose change. The state is proposing new regulation that would require casinos to send 75 percent of the proceeds to its coffers.
SPEAKIN’ OF PROPOSALS … Everyone who cruises Las Vegas has been on Frank Sinatra Drive, Dean Martin Drive and Industrial Road. Sin City resident Josh Elliot thinks it’d be cool to rename the northbound part of Industrial to Sammy Davis Jr. Parkway, creating a reunion of the rat pack. The idea has the approval of Mr. Bojangles’ family, and they are throwing a party on his birthday. The Dec. 8 Caesars Palace fundraiser will help defer costs of the street name change and benefit the nonprofit Community Hospital of San Bernardino.
PEOPLE THOUGHT they were out in the sun too long when they walked into the Silverton in Las Vegas during Mer-Con 2011. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a Mermaid Convention. The casino’s 117,000-gallon aquarium was host for the first-ever gathering of merfolk that’s male and female mers. Twenty-eight mermaids and two mermen competed for the title or mer-queen and mer-king in the beauty competition.
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