360 Vegas

E-499: Making It Awkward

Random Vegas 
Super successful restaurants make $20-25 million a year.  STK at Cosmopolitan makes almost $50 million a year and Hell’s Kitchen at Caesars Palace generates more than $60 million a year. (Vital Vegas) 
TwitPic of the week 
Dunes, Caesars Palace, Flamingo and Aladdin.  Those that still remain look radically different from how they looked in 1980.  This photo shared by @summacorp shows just how cluttered things used to be on the strip before the Mirage boom started buying up all available land to make super casinos.  Today, this same perspective would show off Mekka Walgreens, Planet Hollywood, Paris, Horseshoe and Flamingo as well as Caesars and Bellagio. 
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E-500
Swingers
F1 
 
 

360 Vegas Reviews - Ka

What is it with Cirque du Soleil and Vegas? Ever since Steve Wynn invited Mystere to set up shop at Treasure Island in 1993, the French-Canadian circus brand that has made absurdity its trademark has become an inextricable part of Vegas entertainment. As of this writing, there are 5 Cirque du Soleil shows that call Vegas home (6, if you count the Cirque-owned, but not Cirque-developed, Blue Man Group) and there have been a total of 11 Cirque shows that have had permanent runs in Las Vegas. Some of them had shorter runs than others...
 
Come aboard, we're expecting you...
Kà was the fourth Cirque du Soleil show developed for the Las Vegas market, and it has the distinction of being the first Cirque show to tell a cohesive narrative. If you’ve never seen a Cirque du Soleil show: most Cirque shows have a theme but not a narrative. Mad Apple is themed after New York City.  “O” is themed after water. I’ve read that Mystere is themed after “the origins of human life and our connection with the universe,” so you know, someone smoked a lot of weed.The story is fairly simple, but I do think people need to know the basics of it before they see the show. Compared to the current iteration of Awakening (which now practically serves up the entire story to the audience on a silver platter) Kà’s narrative works best if you know the story notes going in. A twin brother and sister are part of a tribe that gets attacked by bad guys. The twins are separated and most find their way back together and also save their people.  Each twin kind of goes through their own rite of passage on their journey before they are reunited and save their people.
The massive sandcliff deck.
Let’s talk about the tech behind Kà. Kà is an absolute technological marvel. It doesn’t have a proper stage floor, it just has an open pit that is full of various nets and airbags for the performers. Instead, there are two moving stages that are so massive and heavy that Cirque had to go outside of the theater industry and turned to Timberland Equipment, a company that normally builds mining equipment, to build their moving support structures. In one scene, one of the moving platforms is covered with 350 cubic feet of “granular cork” imported from Portugal to simulate sand on a beach. At one point in the show, the larger sandcliff deck has these pegs that stick out of it. As they are supposed to look like arrows shot onto the surface, they pop out of the deck very fast. But the performers have to climb using these pegs, so there are dual safety features incorporated into the pegs. First, they won’t shoot out if anything is blocking them, and second, they won’t go back in if there’s any kind of weight on them.  I could go on and on. Kà has won awards for its technical achievements in theater. I even read somewhere that it was the most expensive theatrical production ever made, but I couldn’t corroborate that anywhere.
This machine makes french fries 3 different ways!
Of course, all the technology in the world doesn’t necessarily give you an entertaining experience (Take notes, Avatar: The Way of Water). I’m happy to report that Kà is indeed an extremely entertaining experience, and one of the Cirque shows that I have enjoyed the most. I’m always looking for a narrative, so the fact that this show has one helps that enjoyment immensely. That being said, I recommend buying a program or at least reading through the show’s wikipedia page so that you can get a basic understanding of the story beats and recognize what’s happening.Like any well-told story, the show does a good job of varying the pace. There are intense action sequences and there are peaceful pas de deux. You have, of course, your typical array of Cirque acrobatics, some of which even takes place in the wings on either side of the stage. I recommend you arrive for your seats about 20 minutes early, as there is some pre-show action to enjoy. I really enjoyed the final battle, in which the sandcliff deck is positioned vertically. The performers, suspended from the ceiling, move up and down the face of the sandcliff deck, and it gives the illusion that you are watching the battle from above, like a top-down video game.
You'll never guess who farted in the Wheel of Death.
Like many Cirgue shows, you don’t want to sit too close. We sat in the center. There’s a walkway that runs through the theater separating the front sections from the rear sections, and we sat in the second row back from the walkway, and our views were perfect. Each seat is very comfortable and has its own pair of speakers for excellent sound.  No outside food is allowed, but drinks can be purchased or brought in if transferred to disposable cups which are available.Audience fuckery is pretty minimal. No one is pulled up onstage, but a performer did hiss at us from the half-wall in front of our section before the show. We got a laugh out of it. There are two shows five nights a week (Saturday through Wednesday). Tickets start as low as $74.

E-498: Orientation

Random Vegas 
Frederick W. Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx saved his company by gambling in Las Vegas.  When FedEx had a hard time paying their $24,000 fuel bill, Smith took the company’s last $5,000 to gamble and managed to win $27,000 on blackjack and kept the business afloat. 
TwitPic of the week 
The year is 1985 and featured in this picture is the Dunes in all her glory including the satellite casino named the Oasis.  Beyond being a snapshot in time of a property I adore, shared by @Summacorp what captivates my imagination is virtually all this landscape has been almost completely reimagined over the next 20 years.  We all know Bellagio is in the place Dunes used to be but other than the Jocky Club, everything is different.  The entire southwest of the real estate.  It’s missing Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, all of CityCenter, Park MGM, NYNY, Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.  Ironically almost everything around it is the same, although updated like Barbary is now Cromwell and Flamingo is no longer a Hilton.  
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Rod Stewart Residency
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Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Bar

E-497: Atrium

Random Vegas 
Open containers are legal if you are using a limo or party bus.  Not legal in a rideshare or taxi. (Las Vegas Trivia Tidbits Book) 
TwitPic of the week 
It’s something we take for granted for in Vegas, not knowing what time of day or night it is.  But viewing an atomic explosion has got to be an experience like no other.  Here we see downtown Las Vegas in the midst of just such an occasion, shared by @Summacorp.  Even in this picture the magnitude of these explosions is palatable.  The light in the distances somehow makes the casinos in the foreground look like they belong to a model playset in comparison to the expanse of light.  Amazing that you can describe something so destructive as beautiful. 
News
Caesars Sells WSOP
Venetian Happy Hours

E-496: Preparation

Random Vegas 
Hilton, at one time, had the tallest sign in Vegas at 362 feet tall, taller than the Landmark Hotel itself and only a few feet shy of the Hilton itself.  On July 18, 1994, it was blown down by 70-80 mph high winds.  Fortunately, no one was injured.  The sign was rebuilt in 1997 but not nearly as tall at only 279 feet tall. This is the sign Westgate has to this day. @summacorp 
TwitPic of the week 
Do you realize how much Vegas history is in this one shot shared by @Summacorp?  We’ll start with Circus Circus since it’s the easiest to orient yourself with.  Here you can see her 5 fountains and carousel marquee as well.  Next door you have Travel-lodge to the left, still there today, and Westward Ho on the right, not with us anymore. Across the street you have the Thunderbird, Algiers and Riviera. Today its Fontainebleau and a parking lot for the LVCVA. Beyond that we can see the International, the Convention Center and the Landmark.  Today the International is the Westgate and the convention center is now so much bigger that it repurposed the Landmark parking lot into an extension of the convention center.   
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Downtown Grand For Sale
360 Vegas Vacation 15 
Bellagio Expansion 
 
 

E-495: Coming In Hot

Random Vegas 
There were 137 employees that worked all 34 years and 8 months at the Mirage.  All current employees get $2k per year worked and first dibs on Hard Rock jobs in 2027 (@Vegas_Visual) 
TwitPic of the week 
It’s the best picture I’ve ever seen that really shows off the scope and grandeur of a live performance at the Sphere, shared by @meltzvegas.  The 18k images dwarf the performers while enhancing the music. It’s an experience unlike no other and of course its located in Las Vegas. Even if its only to watch the movie I can’t recommend the Sphere experience enough, unless you get motion sickness.  Then stay away from that shit. 
News
Neon Museum Expansion
Hard Rock Las Vegas

Mail Bag E-4

360 Mail Bag is our opportunity to address your feedback in a causal conversation between friends.
 

E-494: Driverless DUI

Random Vegas 
YESCO replaced more than six miles of neon lighting with RGB LED strips on Mandalay Bay and Delano (Vital Vegas). 
TwitPic of the week 
I was never a fan of the property, but damn did they have a nice marquee.  The Frontier marquee, born in 1966 and shared by @_GrandPaD with an assist from @summacorp, was designed by Ad Art. It was at one time the tallest super pylon in the world at 184 feet, 4 feet taller than the previous record holder the Dunes.  Originally the “F” at the top of the sign rotated but that functionality was troublesome and eventually abandoned.  Unlike the Dunes I was fortunate enough to have seen her in real life and to be fair, pictures don’t do it justice.  Not like being in its presence.  I’m grateful for that time and for this picture for inspiring not only this monologue but the memories. 
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Mirage-TI Tram closes
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Cosmopolitan Changes to MGM
Neon City Festival