Saturday, March 27, 2010
This is The End!
This is the last post to this blog. All of the content from this blog is available at Steve's Live From Las Vegas, which you will find at http://stevefey.com/LivefromLv/. Clicking the title to this post will take you there. If that's too much for you, you can click here.
If you received this message via a subscription, please go to the new location and re-subscribe. It's really easy, I promise. I'm not going to take this blog down, but I won't be able to update it after the end of this month.
Thanks for Visiting!
-- Steve
If you received this message via a subscription, please go to the new location and re-subscribe. It's really easy, I promise. I'm not going to take this blog down, but I won't be able to update it after the end of this month.
Thanks for Visiting!
-- Steve
Labels: Info
Monday, March 22, 2010
Here's the scoop on the changeover
I have decided to go with WordPress, due to the humongous amount of files that I'd have to transfer and the somewhat awkward way Blogger handles things after the transition. The blog is actually already up, although not everything is there or working just yet. I plan to transition over the weekend. If you visit stevefey.com after that time you'll be automatically taken to my new blog, which has the same name but a different appearance. All of the posts are already there. The categories did not transfer, but I'm working on that. It may take months to get all of the posts into the proper categories, but I'll keep doing a few now and then. I figure that the older they are the less it matters.
The links are easier to find and use as well, and I have much better control over comments, etc. This post will not appear on the new blog. So, if you're looking for the latest from Steve Fey's Live From Las Vegas! you need to click the title of this post, or here and you'll be taken right to it.
The links are easier to find and use as well, and I have much better control over comments, etc. This post will not appear on the new blog. So, if you're looking for the latest from Steve Fey's Live From Las Vegas! you need to click the title of this post, or here and you'll be taken right to it.
Labels: Info
Saturday, March 20, 2010
One More Thing
I got an anonymous comment recently. I do not ever, and I mean this, publish anonymous comments. When I say "anyone can post a comment," I mean "anyone who admits who they are." So, if you posted a comment recently and it didn't appear, try again under your name and it will show up, almost no matter what you say.
'kay?
Steve
'kay?
Steve
Labels: Info
Change is Coming!
You may have noticed that this blog is actually hosted on my own website. One way or another this situation will change before the end of March 2010. There is an automatic migration tool on Blogger to move everything there, which I just tried with my teensy and underused blog My First Published Novel. It appears that the entire process worked fine, so I will be trying it with this rather humongous blog as well. If it works you will have the option of letting my old site redirect you every time, or if you use a bookmark, of simply changing your bookmark to find me here. It's all good for me.
Should anything go wrong, however, I will be migrating the entire shebang to WordPress, and this blog will appear right where it is now. All this will be happening next weekend, if the wind's with me, so stay tuned and hope for the best.
See you later,
Steve
Should anything go wrong, however, I will be migrating the entire shebang to WordPress, and this blog will appear right where it is now. All this will be happening next weekend, if the wind's with me, so stay tuned and hope for the best.
See you later,
Steve
Labels: Info
Zabriskie Point
No, not the movie. I've never seen it. And, to be honest, this is also about Scotty's Castle. Overall, I'd say this post is about Death Valley National Park. This was my second visit to the park. The first time the place had a lake that people were boating on, and there were wildflowers in profusion in many places. This time we did not visit Badwater, although we did get down at least 190 feet according to the sign at the Visitors' Center. My GPS had us at -176 feet in the parking lot of Death Valley Ranch, for what that's worth. Not much, I know.
But we wanted to see Scotty's Castle the first time we were there but frankly ran out of time in our day-trip before we could. This time we checked on routes to the park from Vegas and found a lot shorter way to go, so we had time for a tour. To be fair, the short way in was washed out the first time we visited. I must say, when it rains in the desert, it messes not around.
On the way in we passed Zabriskie Point, so we stopped. Prior to visiting the park, I had no idea that there was such a place, really. Zabriskie was the VP and General Manager of Pacific Borax, and the original impetus behind creating Death Valley National Monument. Yes, the evil mining corporation saved the area for posterity. Think of that what you will, but do look up "irony" in a decent dictionary before you publish your opinion, if you'd be so kind. There's one of those informational plaques up on the Point that explains it all.
Then, after lunch, on to Scotty's Castle, where we learned that Scotty never owned the place. But, overall the story was really nice. It's a story of three people who all came to Death Valley looking for something (not all the same thing, by the way.) And, all three found what they were looking for, including friendship with each other. You can Google Scotty's Castle I'm sure and learn all about it, but if you have the opportunity, you really ought to visit the house and take the tour. There are three tours, actually, the house tour, the underground tour, and the tour of Scotty's actual abode, about five miles down the road.
I posted an album on Facebook that anyone can view. You don't need a Facebook account, you just need to click the title to this post and you're there. Go ahead, I promise it won't hurt a bit!
-- Steve
But we wanted to see Scotty's Castle the first time we were there but frankly ran out of time in our day-trip before we could. This time we checked on routes to the park from Vegas and found a lot shorter way to go, so we had time for a tour. To be fair, the short way in was washed out the first time we visited. I must say, when it rains in the desert, it messes not around.
On the way in we passed Zabriskie Point, so we stopped. Prior to visiting the park, I had no idea that there was such a place, really. Zabriskie was the VP and General Manager of Pacific Borax, and the original impetus behind creating Death Valley National Monument. Yes, the evil mining corporation saved the area for posterity. Think of that what you will, but do look up "irony" in a decent dictionary before you publish your opinion, if you'd be so kind. There's one of those informational plaques up on the Point that explains it all.
Then, after lunch, on to Scotty's Castle, where we learned that Scotty never owned the place. But, overall the story was really nice. It's a story of three people who all came to Death Valley looking for something (not all the same thing, by the way.) And, all three found what they were looking for, including friendship with each other. You can Google Scotty's Castle I'm sure and learn all about it, but if you have the opportunity, you really ought to visit the house and take the tour. There are three tours, actually, the house tour, the underground tour, and the tour of Scotty's actual abode, about five miles down the road.
I posted an album on Facebook that anyone can view. You don't need a Facebook account, you just need to click the title to this post and you're there. Go ahead, I promise it won't hurt a bit!
-- Steve
Labels: Info, Social Commentary
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Casino
This is a picture of a house not far from my house. It is on Cochise Lane (I think it's Lane anyway) in Paradise Palms, in the unincorporated town of Paradise Nevada. I first saw the movie Casino while working the graveyard shift at Wynn Las Vegas. At that time I was new to Vegas, and I didn't recognize any of the locations. Things have changed, bucko. Things have changed. For one thing, the basic story portrayed in the movie is, as it says up front, adapted from a true story. Not adapted a whole lot, as it turns out, which makes watching it, for a Las Vegas resident. kind of strange. The protagonist of the movie is named Sam Rosenfeld. They changed the name, but not a lot. The actual person portrayed was named Frank Rosenthal. He was real, and he really did take his casino (the Stardust, although he managed others secretly as well) to double the profitability in one short year. One of Rosenthal's innovations was female blackjack dealers. Look around the casino next time you're in Vegas and reflect upon the fact that prior to the mid 70s, women didn't deal in casinos. Not all dealers are women, of course, no more than half are, but they are visible, and doing the job 24/7/365. Like I care who passes me my cards in the first place.
Frank had a friend named Tony Spilotro, who was morphed into Nicky Santoro for the movie. Tony was like Nicky, only not quite as nice. Tony's gang was known as the "hole in the wall gang" for their method of getting into jewelery stores, which is portrayed well in the movie. Somebody who was there actually described Tony's last moments a couple of years ago. They simply shot him, and his brother. Yes, the details were otherwise accurate in the movie. As I said, it's strange to watch the film.
That house above, at least the exterior, was used as the exterior of Sam's house in the movie. Rosenthal never lived there so far as I know, and the interior was almost certainly a different house, but of the proper vintage. (The house on Cochise is one story; the one in the movie is two.) At one point a house explodes in the film. That house is in the neighborhood (and undamaged by the FX, by the way.) The house that Nicky and his gang shoot up? Also right down the street a bit. If you know about FX you can see that scene and notice that the structure of the house is untouched by all the "bullets" flying about. Odd that the exterior lights never got hit, isn't it? More FX, natch. And the street where Sam's wife, played by Sharon Stone, speeds off when they finally break up? I run that stretch frequently. Believe me, only a professional should ever attempt to take it faster than 25 miles per hour.
By the way, the real person and his wife merely divorced. They had two children. Rosenthal moved to Florida and kept on handicapping for many years after he left Vegas. No word on his wife, but I don't think she ended as shown in the movie. Still, Rosenthal blamed her drug and alcohol abuse for the breakup.
I can't remember which place they used for the interiors, but it looked very familiar. I think maybe the Golden Nugget, but I'm guessing. If anyone knows, let me know, because I'm too lazy to research that item right now. My point is that almost the entire film was really shot right here in real Las Vegas, and if you live here, and know that some of the people portrayed have relatives that you might actually meet at the mall some day, it all gets to seem very strange indeed.
I'm not reviewing here, but I do like the movie. Dick Smothers does an amazing job of looking nothing at all like himself in his role as "The Senator." It's actually a pivotal plot point, in the movie and in reality. In any event, don't let small children watch it. Parts of it are a bit unsettling to say the least. If you want to see some of the real, for true, Las Vegas away from the strip, though, this movie's got it. There's even a scene shot next door to Luv-It Custard, but you can't tell because they're behind the neighboring convenience store.
Phew!
Labels: Info, Reviews, Social Commentary
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Read French?
I do, but still it was amazing to get this bit of spam this morning:
LE LICENCIEMENT
PROCEDURES & ASPECTS PRATIQUES
Tout ce qu'il faut savoir ... et plus
animé par:
Consultant expert en législation et relation du travail
Objectifs
Mettre à la disposition des gestionnaires une panoplie de textes et de procédures régissant la gestion du licenciement individuel et collectif dans les différents types de contrats et contextes ainsi ques ces incidences financières sur l'entreprise, afin de leur permettre de surmonter toutes les éventuelles difficultés qu'ils pourraient rencontrer
les 18 et 19 Mars 2010
à l'hôtel Karthago Le Palace
CETTE FORMATION VOUS CONCERNE
Directeurs
Directeurs/Responsables Administratif & Financier Directeurs/Responsables des Ressources Humaines Chefs du personnel
Contacter nous ...
Tél : 71782 733 / 24511 000
Fax: 71 782 936
Mail:firstacademy1@yahoo.fr
You can go if you want; I'm busy that day. Where do these people get my address?
Steve
LE LICENCIEMENT
PROCEDURES & ASPECTS PRATIQUES
Tout ce qu'il faut savoir ... et plus
animé par:
Consultant expert en législation et relation du travail
Objectifs
Mettre à la disposition des gestionnaires une panoplie de textes et de procédures régissant la gestion du licenciement individuel et collectif dans les différents types de contrats et contextes ainsi ques ces incidences financières sur l'entreprise, afin de leur permettre de surmonter toutes les éventuelles difficultés qu'ils pourraient rencontrer
les 18 et 19 Mars 2010
à l'hôtel Karthago Le Palace
CETTE FORMATION VOUS CONCERNE
Directeurs
Directeurs/Responsables Administratif & Financier Directeurs/Responsables des Ressources Humaines Chefs du personnel
Contacter nous ...
Tél : 71782 733 / 24511 000
Fax: 71 782 936
Mail:firstacademy1@yahoo.fr
You can go if you want; I'm busy that day. Where do these people get my address?
Steve
