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Articles Tagged ‘Las Vegas activities’

Scares on the Strip: Hot Halloween events in Las Vegas

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Halloween events in Las Vegas
By E.C. Gladstone

Are you obsessed with Halloween? Well then, get yourself to Las Vegas. Because in a town that loves to dress up, Halloween is arguably the biggest holiday of the year, and we have so many events — lasting throughout October and into November — that I can’t even possibly list them all here. But I’ve got some highlights, at the Las Vegas hotels and beyond:

Dressing for excess

Love Jones, the Hard Rock Hotel’s great little lingerie store, is featuring a special Halloween collection. For other sexy costumes, check Déjà Vu boutique, 4335 Tropicana across from the Orleans Hotel & Casino.

Haunted houses

Fright Dome at Circus Circus‘  Adventuredome is a well-established month-long attraction scary enough that they strongly discourage kids under 12. Five haunted houses and performances as well as rides of course … Down the south end of the Strip, Monster Mayhem Haunted Village has appeared at Town Square mall, offering three haunted houses along with arcade games and carnival fun (not to mention Town Square’s popular locals bars Blue Martini and Yard House and many restaurants nearby). … Out in Red Rock Canyon, the Bonnie Springs ghost town has become "Bonnie Screams" through 11/2. … There are several more around town, and even the Las Vegas Springs Preserve has an outdoor "fright zone."

Cheap thrills

Mandalay Beach, which features free movies Friday nights on a floating screen, will be showing the original Saw on Halloween. … Kids under 12 get in free to "Haunted Reef" at Shark Reef Aquarium (also at Mandalay Bay) on Halloween.

Nightclubs and bacchanals

A solid week of crazy Halloween parties starts Saturday, October 25, with the legendary annual Fetish & Fantasy Halloween Ball which is definitely not for the prudish! On Sunday, October 26, the Palms resort’s week of events starts with a sexy (Spearmint Rhino girls) costume party at Playboy Club, continuing Tuesday (October 28) with Girls Next Door’s Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt hosting DJ J’Roc’s "Trick ‘Em and Treat ‘Em" at Moon. … Also Tuesday, MGM Grand , Studio 54’s annual "Nightmare On 54th Street" week of parties starts with a very cool dance tribute to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (free drinks for ladies dressed for the ’80s); becomes the 42nd annual Beaux Arts Ball on Thursday (October 30), and even stretches into an after-hours party the morning of November 1. … Other nightclub and lounge promotions going on up and down the Strip include a spiked cider party Tuesday at Buse in Four Seasons and Mingle and Mayhem on Thursday at Blush, Wynn.

And on Halloween itself (10/31), Harrah’s outdoor Carnaval Court will have a Ghouls Gone Wild party from noon onward. … SushiSamba is doing a very cool Spooky Kabuki event, with a Japanese-inspired costume contest, Japanese candy, a very cool Dracula dessert and special cocktail (guaranteed coolness). … Adult film star Tera Patrick will be hosting (and Djing!) Tao Nightclub’s Taolloween (guaranteed hotness!). … Other celebrity hosts include Tila Tequila at Christian Audigier (T.I.) and Wilmer Valderrama at Pure (Caesars Palace). … Over at Palms resort, all four clubs (Moon, Rain, Playboy, Ghostbar) are hosting big prize-winning costume contests ($$$), so you can expect a crazy parade there! And just when you thought the freaks might go back to the underworld.

Insider tip: Halloween is just the start of a crazy Vegas weekend. Saturday, November 1, Fabulous Fest brings an incredible all-night array of top DJ talent to the Orleans Arena including Armin Van Buuren, Deadmau5, MSTRKRFT and a lot more.

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Las Vegas is a cultural desert (but in a good way)

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Bellagio_las_vegas
By E.C. Gladstone

Ever since 1955, when Noel Coward graced the stage at the Desert Inn, there’s been an ongoing debate about whether or not culture could thrive in the freewheeling, easy-dealing Sin City. Surprisingly, when art collector Steve Wynn opened the Bellagio with its own Gallery of Fine Art, the discussion only became more heated.

But the upcoming performance of legendary operatic tenor Placido Domingo at Planet Hollywood’s Theatre for the Performing Arts on September 15 seemed like a good time to review the more refined pursuits of our little oasis.

Small by museum standards,  Bellagio’s Gallery nonetheless continues to present worthy exhibitions. The current American Modernism review includes many rarely seen canvases by Georgia O’Keefe, Max Weber, Hans Hoffman, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Garfield Dove and Arshile Gorky in an unusually relaxed and intimate setting. Visitors to the property should also enjoy three free attractions: The Art Of Richard MacDonald in the foyer of the ‘O’ Theatre, the glorious Dale Chihuly glass sculpture in the hotel lobby, and the ever-changing floral displays at Bellagio’s Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.

If science or history are in your sights, Luxor has a newly expanded presentation of Bodies The Exhibition and the Tropicana houses an exhibit of genuine S.S.Titanic artifacts. Forum Shops, Fashion Show Mall and the Grand Canal Shoppes all have a wde variety of retail art galleries worth exploring (Peter Max, Peter Lik and more).

Anyone here the first week of the month (or any) should try to attend First Fridays downtown, a regular open house and fanciful block party of our city’s downtown galleries on and around Charleston Boulevard. Golden Nugget is certainly the preeminent place to stay downtown — though it’s actually the budget-priced historic El Cortez casino which has a free First Friday shuttle.

Farther afield on the west side, the Las Vegas Philharmonic is celebrating its tenth year; Bosendorfer Pianos of Las Vegas displays the largest selection of the uncommon instruments in the country; and the Las Vegas Art Museum is presenting a selection of contemporary art owned by local collectors, including works by Basquiat, Hirst, Hockney, Murakami, Price, Ruscha and Warhol (LVAM is hosting a celebratory gala at the elegant Wynn resort on September 27). Summerlin’s Red Rock Resort and JW Marriott are two fine places to stay nearby.

So feel free to continue the debate about Las Vegas culture over a plate of fine cheese and a glass of excellent wine at any number of excellent restaurants up and down the Strip… we’ve already made up our minds!

Insider tip: Though it is a retail store, Bauman Rare Books (Palazzo) displays astounding historical literary works, political documents, and even some artworks — but Las Vegans may be most intrigued by their impressive collections of Western Frontier maps and rare food, wine and cocktail books.

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E.C. Gladstone is a former editor for AOLVegas, and interviews top
Strip entertainers, restaurateurs, moguls and behind-the-scenes
players for VEGAS Magazine. Like many Las Vegans, he sleeps only when
absolutely necessary.

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Wild things: Exotic animals on the Vegas Strip

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Shark_reef
By Joe Vegas

Along the Strip, Las Vegas hotels are home to some of the most exotic and dangerous animals in the world. And we’re not talking elderly mob figures who still troll the sports books every now and then. We’re talking about sharks, lions and dolphins, just to name a few.

Beginning on the far southern tip of the Strip, Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef, a 1.6 million-gallon aquarium that you can walk around, under and through, holds some 15 different species of sharks, along with crocodiles, stingrays, a massive pool of jellyfish, piranhas and other rarities you wouldn’t want to see unless they’re behind very thick Plexiglas.

To the north, a shimmering brass lion not only adorns the MGM’s front entrance, but live lions greet visitors inside the casino. For the price of nothing, visitors can watch lions behind Plexiglas in a made-to-look-real habitat, as they frolic, stare at you with steaks in their eyes, or simply doze.

A bit farther north is Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. There’s a 2.5 million-gallon pool that is home to a family of Atlantic bottle-nose dolphins that you can watch up closer than in any other conservation or amusement park facility. Our favorite feature is being able to see the nearly extinct white tigers up very close. It’s a bit sad to see them in captivity, but it would be even sadder to think of their fate in the wild.

Then the most exotic, endlessly fascinating and infinitely unique creatures are those that line the Las Vegas Strip 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are, of course, us. People sit for hours on the Strip just to partake of that very human, and always interesting , sport of people-watching.

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Joe Vegas currently resides in the Writer’s Protection Program, and
somehow manages to lay low while living the high life in Sin City.

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