Too bad the new ACE Express will travel on these very same roads.

Cutbucks at the local mall have resulted in a decidedly “Do-It-Yourself” attitude towards security, although they forgot to add the obligatory “shit your pants at the site of a Middle Easterner” directive.

Stardust in 2005

I even had a super-stylish copyright back then.

Like puberty, everyone goes through an awkward online phase.

Fancy copyrights are the Internet equivalent of a bad haircut and an upturned shirt collar … which by the way … I still see from time to time around town.

I never really understood the purpose of sticking one’s shirt collar straight up, but I’m not exactly a slave to fashion.

Wackjack in Las Vegas

“NASCAR Weekend” just wrapped up in Las Vegas, and following a new personal tradition, I spent a good part of the weekend at the Sahara.

Frankly, I’ve always found the Sahara’s NASCAR theme to be somewhat unusual. It just doesn’t seem to “fit” for some reason.

The Sahara is a desert-themed hotel with a rich and storied history (the Beatles stayed here during their first visit to Vegas), and I never really figured out how stock cars found their way into this paradigm. On any given day, you can stand outside and watch a race car roller coaster loop past the iconic neon camels. It’s a very odd paring. Kind of like putting a gigantic poster of two Mormons facing the sinful Vegas Strip. As if that could happen.

Anyway, since the Sahara is ground zero for racing fans in Vegas, this is obviously one of the best places in town to spend a racing weekend … second only to the track itself.

After walking to the casino and scoping out a prime Blackjack table on Saturday, I became slightly disillusioned with how the Sahara was conducting itself. While both $3 and $5 “real” Blackjack tables are standard offerings at the casino (which is part of why the property is endearing for me), the Sahara had converted at least half of their five dollar games to 6:5.

Given the loyal crowds, this seemed very opportunistic.

Look, I understand the laws of supply and demand, and I understand what most people consider to be “good business decisions”. Americans think “capitalism” is synonymous with “greed”, and they think that good capitalists need to “capitalize” on every customer.

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Apparently, I took this photo in June of 2008 at the Mirage.

I can’t for the life of me remember taking it, but I don’t remember 90% of the photos I take.

It seemed a shame to leave this in an obscure directory on my hard drive.

Palms Hotel and Casino Sign

Here we go again.

It’s like Deja vu.

This was how Planet Hollywood’s demise began.

For those who may be unaware, keep in mind that Texas Pacific Group is also known as “Harrah’s”.

Texas Pacific Group, one of the private equity owners of Harrah’s Entertainment in Las Vegas, is accumulating debt in the Palms resort, according to a story published Wednesday by Debtwire, a publication of the Financial Times.

Citing unnamed sources, the publication said TPG had acquired a piece of the Palms’ $380 million bank debt. It also said Palms’ EBITDA – a commonly-used profit indicator – fell to $12 million this year amid the recession from about $70 million two years ago.

The Palms is restructuring its debt and the Maloof family, which owns the Palms, is in the process of selling its beer distribution business in New Mexico for $100 million, the publication said.

The Palms loans are privately-held but can be traded among investors.

Palms owner George Maloof declined comment on the story and declined to discuss his resort’s financing other than to say the business was on solid ground.

I certainly hope George is right.

While not as polarizing as say, Imperial Palace , The Palms is another one of those properties which people tend to have a strange relationship with. In a way, it’s Hard Rock West … with a twist.

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I waited 15 minutes in the rain to get this, and had to time it just right, wiping off the lens with a cloth every 3 seconds.

It was not easy to get in a downpour, and thus it is not of great quality, but sometimes you just have to do what you can.

I almost missed this one.

At first glance, I thought I had just taken random shots, but there is a well-camouflaged jet taking off beneath me near the center of the pictures.

The Stratosphere

“Why do you take so many pictures of the Stratosphere?”

“Why do you take so many unflattering pictures of Las Vegas?”

In the last few months, I’ve been hit with variations of these two questions on a routine basis.

For some reason, there has been a burgeoning interest in my photographic habits.

Why? I do not know. I think some of the questions are rhetorical critiques, but perhaps there is a legitimate question or two buried within the hundred or so queries over the past few months.

The reason I don’t respond to individual emails is because I don’t respond to anything unless I make an effort to put some thought into it. I’ve never sent an email that says “LOL. Thanks.” This is why I’m a bad Twitterer. I’m not brief. I don’t cut-and-paste responses either. If I don’t have the time to formulate a thoughtful, complete response, I don’t respond at all. It is for this reason, I usually address common questions publicly. I just can’t do it one-by-one.

So, for the first time, I will try to provide at least some insight into my Vegas photography “style”.

When news crews are in Washington, D.C., they often film their reporters standing in front of the White House or the Capitol Building. This even extends to political cartoons. They will typically sketch a government landmark somewhere in the backdrop. This is the primary visual clue to the reader that the setting of the cartoon is in Washington.

When crews are reporting from Los Angeles, they typically have the Hollywood sign visible in the background. New York reporters will get a Times Square or a Manhattan skyline shot. Every city has a designated spot where crews congregate to report generic geographically-based stories. It’s their way of saying “Look, we’re really here!”.

In Las Vegas, that spot is the “Welcome to Las Vegas Sign”. Every time something happens in Vegas, crews from all over the country trip all over themselves to jockey for location shots in front of the sign. If there are any weather abnormalities, they go to the sign … if they talk about tourism numbers, they go to the sign … hell, sometimes they go to the sign for no obvious reason at all. It’s a default location when there is nowhere else to go.

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Cloud Nine and I got off to a rough start.

As a matter of fact, we got off on such a bad start, that I intentionally steered clear of giving this new ride a try. I’m a pretty unforgiving human being.

Lately, however, the balloon has been tempting me. I’ve been passing the launch zone on a frequent basis, and the fact that I had not seen the view from the top was gnawing at me.

Today, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to go up. I caved.

As someone who has intermittently flown airplanes for the last 25 or so years, I think it’s safe to say that I am not afraid of heights. I think it’s safe to say that I am not a fearful person in general. I was a bike messenger who was hospitalized three times after being hit by vehicles, I’ve owned and ridden motorcycles, I’ve ridden in helicopters, I’ve stood on stages in front of hostile crowds, I surfed in a hurricane and was hospitalized for contusions and lacerations, I’ve been bitten by a shark, I’ve gone up in the CN Tower and every major observation deck in North America, I’ve ridden every roller coaster and thrill ride imaginable, I’ve eaten at the Imperial Palace Buffet, I’ve gone to a Las Vegas physician, I watched a live taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show … many of these things provoke fear in rational human beings … but I took them all in complete stride.

I’ve gotten far more cautious since I’ve had kids, and I am not physically able to do what I used to do … but historically, few things have truly “scared” me.

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View From Cloud 9 Balloon Las Vegas

Well, quasi-live.

I just got out of the balloon.