Steve Fey's Live From Las Vegas!

This is The End!

2010-03-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

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

Here's the scoop on the changeover

2010-03-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

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.

One More Thing

2010-03-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

Change is Coming!

2010-03-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

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

Zabriskie Point

2010-03-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

Casino

2010-03-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

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!

Read French?

2010-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

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

Is This Fair?

2010-02-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

As I write, Tami is in the locker room of a strip club interviewing exotic dancers. Rather than paying to get in, which even the dancers have to do, she is getting paid to be there. Now I ask you, is that fair?

I thought not!

Spade & Archer

2010-02-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

This book was written by Joe Gores, who isn't Daishell Hammett, but might as well be. It is a prequel to the famous Maltese Falcon, of Bogart movie fame. The last ten lines, in fact, are the first ten lines of Hammett's novel. The publisher is Alfred Knopf of New York.

This isn't one of my usual one-line reviews because I really liked this book. Besides, in order to have so closely duplicated (not quite perfect, but close) the style of another writer, Gores obviously studied Hammett's vocabulary, phrasing, even sentence length, and made quite a practice of duplicating those things.That could be a lesson to anyone studying to write fiction, I believe.

I did notice one thing that is different. Hammett refers to automobiles as "machines" in The Maltese Falcon, but Gores calls them "cars." The period references in the book that I know are all spot-on, and I wouldn't be surprised if "cars" is more accurate for the twenties, but not once does Gores use the term "machine" to refer to an automobile.

Other than that, it was damned near a perfect copy of Hammett's voice, and it made me want to read The Maltese Falcon again. In fact, if you've never read the Hammett work, you might start with Spade & Archer and go right into the earlier book when you finish. Even if you read them in publication order, though, you'll be sorry when you're finished. That's a promise.

Steve

10K and Away

2010-02-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I do my old standard distance, the 10K. If you don't know how long 10 K is, the K stands for Kilometers. That better? Anyway, yesterday (Saturday) was one of those days. Normally I'd have done a six mile training run this morning, but 10K is close enough so I just did the race for grins.

Well, as I occasionally re-learn, there's a big difference between a nice training run, no matter how you push, and a race. Whew! The race was along the River Mountains Trail, entirely in Henderson, although the trail goes through several jurisdictions. It's a lovely trail, with lots of elevation changes. Like up to Railroad Pass and down the other side, then come back. Oh, yeah. My legs were sure glad when I stopped. Next I think I'll do a half marathon at Red Rocks, just west of Las Vegas. Take Charleston West out of town and you'll be there in no time. I'm serious: next time you're in Vegas, check out Red Rocks. You'll be glad you did.

Funny thing about Railroad Pass. There is a railroad there, and there's a railroad crossing on the trail. If you follow the tracks a quarter mile West from the trail crossing, though, they stop. On US 95 there's a set of crossing gates, signs, lights, and no tracks at all. Not much of a railroad if you ask me. But it does still cross the pass.

Steve

Oh, the Rain, Oh, the Rain!

2010-02-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

This is really for all my readers in the Midwest and East.

It's been raining a lot in Vegas. A whole lot. Makes driving a bit messy. Yep, lots of nasty old rain. Oh, it's awful, I tell you, just awful. Terrible about all that rain.

-- Snort Snort!

Steve

Caesar Said It

2010-01-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

"Since we have come to the place, it does not appear to be foreign to our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul and Germany, and wherein these nations differ from each other. In Gaul there are factions not only in all the states, and in all the cantons and their divisions, but almost in each family, and of these factions those are the leaders who are considered according to their judgment to possess the greatest influence, upon whose will and determination the management of all affairs and measures depends. And that seems to have been instituted in ancient times with this view, that no one of the common people should be in want of support against one more powerful; for, none [of those leaders] suffers his party to be oppressed and defrauded, and if he do otherwise, he has no influence among his party. This same policy exists throughout the whole of Gaul; for all the states are divided into two factions." -- Caius Julius Caesar, 58BCE

Available at University of Virginia online library (click the title of this post); taken from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars: with the Supplementary Books attributed to Hirtius; Including the Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars.
Julius Caesar
Translator W. A. McDevitte Translator W. S. Bohn
1st Edition.
Harper & Brothers
New York
1869 Harper's New Classical Library

I draw some conclusions from that quote from Caesar. For one thing, he was a pretty good writer. Beyond that, apparently we use a Gallic political system in this country. In Gaul I imagine that there were liberals and conservatives, with the aim being that neither ever really get the upper hand. Caesar actually liked this two-faction system, as he called it, enough to write about it. Mostly Caesar didn't like much but Caesar, but this Gallic invention was one of the exceptions.

Before somebody gets all bent out of shape about the "Damned French," I need to point out that the Franks (French) moved into Gaul four-hundred years after Caesar wrote his Commentaries, and that the Gauls were more closely related to the Welsh, Irish and Scots than to the Franks. The two-party system was a Celtic invention, actually.

Now in the USA we see the truth of what Caesar wrote. When one faction (party) gets too powerful the people restore some sort of balance. Recently, that election in Massachusetts, which should have been a shoe-in for the Democrat, instead became a referendum on unbalanced party power and hey, shazam, no more supermajority in the Senate. For the same reason that Obama got in last year (too many people not feeling like they were being heard) Obama got a new headache this year. And on we go. For the record, the winner will serve exactly one term. Massachusetts is what it is, after all.

Of course, it is amusing to watch the Democrats scurry about, I'll give it that. Will Rogers said it: "I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat." Yep. I imagine that Caesar would be amused.

Steve

In a Roundabout Way . . .

2010-01-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

Where is this, really?

Take a look at the picture. Every so often, someone from the UK reads this blog. And no, I'm not kidding. It's not even always the same person. If you're in the UK, then really take a look at this picture. What do you (in the UK) see wrong? Okay, most of my American readers won't know, so I'll tell you.

First, it's the wrong color. Should be blue, as any fool knows.

Secondly, the arrows point anti-clockwise? What is this, some sort of joke?

Well, in fact, this is a sign in Wickenburg, Arizona during a rainstorm. It looked so familiar I almost missed the significance. Which is? Well, it's a warning that you're approaching a roundabout, mostly called a traffic circle in America but I've seen both words. The diagram clearly states which lane to get in for which road, even though a lot of people not familiar with the concept miss the point.

One big difference between Arizona and the Midlands: the signage was entirely accurate. No offense, but whoever decides on road signs in Lincolnshire should be shot.

Still, I guess this is a coming thing in the states. Luckily for us, these things work quite well. (One nice thing is that if you miss the turn, you can simply go around again.)

Steve

Running(?) Arizona

2010-01-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is my quick and dirty rundown of the 2010 Arizona Marathon.

First, the results. I finished the race in a chip time of 6:22:34. That's about three minutes faster than the gun time, because it took me three minutes to cross the starting line. My age group percentage rose to 40% after, though, so I am, at least this year, improving. It was not, as it was in Las Vegas, cold as all heck, which really helped. In fact I got a mild sunburn on my face, so I look a little like a negative raccoon where my sunglasses blocked the UV rays. 5184 men finished the race. I beat 80 of 'em. The fastest guy in my age class was 61 years old. His name was Art Rohr of Cortz Colorado. If anybody sees him, congratulate him for me. His age percentage is 77.3%, so it's obvious that there are some damn fast old guys running around somewhere. it ain't me.

The race, then, started right about sunrise. Senator McCain was there helping get us all going. He is looking really good. I actually think I may be on to something when I speculate that he threw the race last election cycle. I don't think he really wanted to be President. At any rate, he looks loose, ten years younger, and happy with his life, so more power to him. I waved as I trotted by. The race course goes through a lot of ordinary Phoenix neighborhoods, which I found interesting. There is a lot of mid-century modern architecture in Phoenix, including some new stuff in the authentic style. If you're looking for some commercial property you can hang on to for a while and sell when the market rebounds, you really ought to check out Phoenix. The housing didn't look bad at all; I say no bank owned houses for sale, in fact, only a few rentals. But there are entire strip malls that are vacant. Not essentially vacant, but vacant. As in nobody, nada, zilch, nil, nadia, nunca, you get the idea by now.

Personally, the first ten miles of the race, which are all uphill, just about wiped me out. I made a decision to walk most of the second half. I'm not sure I could've run another fourteen miles anyway. But it was a nice day for a walk, and I got to see downtown Scottsdale at a walking pace, and talk to some people along the way. I didn't stroll, either. When I walk in a race, I walk as fast as I can, which is actually more work, but which uses different muscles than running so sometimes it's better to alternate running and walking if I'm feeling tired.

The Rock and Roll Marathon series features, well, rock and roll music every mile. The bands in Phoenix were a lot like the bands in Vegas -- mostly pretty darned good. The difference is that in Vegas there were a couple who were damned good, and in fact they have recording contracts, whereas nobody in Phoenix rose to that level. But there were more bands in Phoenix, and they were all, as I said, pretty darned good, so it was a fun day. Some of them kept a 50s theme going, including a rendition of Hound Dog that would do an Elvis Impersonator proud.

The final water station was a bit less than a mile from the end. They (the people handing out the water) called it "Margaritaville." They had island music playing, they dressed like parrotheads (if you don't know what that means, google it,) and they even gave away beads. By mile 25 everybody's feeling great, so that was a fun way to finish up. I ran in from there, in fact, ending with a good kick across the finish line.

It was the largest marathon/half marathon event ever, as it happens. Wow, huh?

So, I'll probably be back next year. What the heck, I maybe can grab some more beads!

Steve

Arizona Here I Come!

2010-01-15T16:18:00.001-08:00

I'm off tomorrow to run in the Phoenix Marathon. I couldn't do much worse than I did in Vegas last month. I'll let you know when it's over how things went. This will be my first marathon not run on the Strip.

Steve

The Presidency

2010-01-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

The President of the United States has to be the most thankless job in the known universe. I heard someone on the radio say the other day that Obama is "destroying the very fabric of the America that we grew up in." Wow. I'll bet he wishes he had that sort of power. Actually, of course, the President can't hardly go to the bathroom without somebody following him in and keeping him safe. How the hell you're supposed to do anything at all creative when nobody will ever leave you the heck alone is beyond me. And of course, the most recent past prez, you know, Shrubby the Bush as I like to call him, was vilified far beyond what his level of incompetence called for. He did not, contrary to what I've heard, cancel the constitution or institute a police state. I bet he wished he could do some of that, but thanks to the fact that any idiot, including present company, can pretty much say whatever he wants to, nobody can do such a thing in this country. I could say similar things about Clinton and Bush the Elder (the one with a brain) but I think I've done enough damage to individual presidents for one day.

The reason I mention all that is that I'd like to propose that we amend the way we select presidents. Instead of an interminable election, how about every six years, or eight, or whatever seems fair, we draft one eligible citizen, and that poor schmuck or schmuckette is stuck with the job. I would cap eligibility for the draft at seventy, though. I'd hate to think we killed anyone outright. Just think of the benefits we'd accrue. For one thing, instead of somebody crazy enough to actually volunteer for the job, we'd get someone sane enough to avoid it. Of course, the truly sane might just emigrate to Canada. In the middle of the night. With their headlights off. But still, we'd have a president who was truly one of the people at last. Think of it: we could get a new Lincoln, or Daniel Webster, or FDR or JFK or Homer Simpson!

Really, just think it over. I'm sure you'll come around to my way of seeing things.

Steve

Sorry About That

2010-01-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

I did not, whatever you might think, put the weather widget on this blog to make people from colder climates feel bad about themselves, or jealous of Las Vegas. Truth is, I first put it on Retiring to Vegas, where it seemed like a reasonable adjunct, considering I'm trying to talk to people considering moving here.

But, now that I think about it, what the hey. Nyah Nyah Nyah!

Boy, that feels better. Enjoy the cold and snow!

Steve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-12-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

It's about time. I got tired of saying "two thousand and" before the year, well, years ago. I'm so happy it's almost twenty-ten, I could just drink champagne and toot a silly horn. Check me out at midnight, and that's just what you'll find me doing.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve, and a great 2010!

Steve

Windows 7

2009-12-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

I got Tami a new computer for her birthday (yesterday.) I got it from Dell, and it was not particularly expensive. In fact it is a desktop and pretty low in cost, around $500 or so. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium on it. So, here's what I think so far of Windows 7.

Short story -- if I could upgrade my XP machine I'd do it right now. Yes, the sad thing is that you can only upgrade from Vista. I'm hoping that Microsoft gets the word enough that they put out some sort of patch to let XP upgrade to Windows 7. In short, it's fast, it looks good, it doesn't drive you crazy like Vista does, but it does let you know if something's trying to install a program on your computer. Tami's came with fifteen months of free McAfee. It took five minutes to set it up, then fifteen to install Office 2007, which I did myself since I had a legal copy already. The files and settings transfer process worked perfectly over the network, but since it's all wireless and therefore not as fast as a Cable Modem, it took four hours to move all of her stuff. But, and this is the great thing, it all moved, and the new computer looks and feels just like the old one, and all of her stuff is loaded, except for Adobe Acrobat and Dragon Naturally Speaking. At the end of the transfer I got a list of programs transferred, along with a short list of (those two) programs that I might consider installing on the new machine.

That was it. No muss, no fuss, and Tami has not had question one in operating the new machine. If you're an old techie like me, you should know that all of the old Windows tricks still work, and you can make it look just like Windows 2000 if you want to. But, the great thing is that you do not need to know a single Windows trick to operate the thing, it's fast, small and even slick. (Yes, they stole an idea or two from the Mac OS. Don't bother suing them -- it's been tried and it failed. The GUI is public domain.)

So there you go -- an excellent review for a Microsoft OS. I never though I'd live to see the day.

Steve

It's Complicated

2009-12-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

Saw this movie yesterday. A romantic comedy, better than the ones on Hallmark for sure. One painfully funny scene with Alec Baldwin.

Defending the Caveman

2009-12-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

You may have heard of the show Defending the Caveman. Saw it last night and thought it was good. It's in Vegas, but also I believe other cities. See it and you might learn something.

Steve

Sherlock Holmes

2009-12-26T06:36:00.000-08:00

Saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie yesterday. Good stuff!

Christmas in the Old Country?

2009-12-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

I was struck this morning by the national weather map. Luckily it only glanced off of my shoulder, but boy, that was close.

I mean, that I was struck by the snow cover this Christmas, which is extensive across the United States. It even stretches to the higher elevations in Clark County Nevada, and right up to the county line to the north, where Lincoln County is a winter wonderland, or so they say. (They have a steam train they call the "Polar Express" this time of year.)

The exception, and this reminds me of several years when I was growing up, is the little area of southern great lakes, or eastern middle west, whichever way you want to look at it, where I grew up. Yep, ol' Tiffin will have a couple of chilly and cloudy days, followed by a bit of rain on Christmas. Once I spent Christmas Eve night up in the attic because we had a house full. I was lulled to sleep by the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof. Ah, yes!

So, for those of you living back in Seneca County and the surrounding area, I guess it's Christmas in the Rain all over again this year. If you can, send the rain my way. The odds are way against a white Christmas anyway, and we could really use the water!

Steve

HO HO HO!!!

2009-12-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

2009-12-13T22:48:00.000-08:00

This is a literary film, not commercial fiction, so you may have to find an art house or something to see it. Nicholas Cage pulls it out, as usual. The iguanas are interesting, and the alligator POV is quite odd.

Steve