WhimsyLand

I guess it's time I turn off the soaps, put down my box of bonbons and wander over to Whimsyland.  First, some shots from the trip Sweet Junie and I took to Fabulous Las Vegas.  Just down from Spago's in Caesar's Palace, there is a Roman mini-mall guarded by some stalwart senators.  That's me, third from the left.

Here's a shot of the Venetian's valet parking area.  We skipped the gondola ride and proceeded straight to the slot machines.  There was a time when you couldn't get me near a slot machine, but they're so much fun now that I don't care what my poker/blackjack/baccarat/craps buddies think.  There are, of course, the completely silly slot machine − those with themes like The Beverly Hillbillies and I Dream of Jeannie.  The really fun ones are the penny slots, which even the largest casinos have.  The reason for this is that you end up playing 20 cents on twenty different lines, each line providing another circuitous way that you can win.  That makes it $4 per spin, which is what the casino is looking for you to do, after all.  The other addictive slot machine is the kind that has a bonus wheel at the top.  When you hit certain combinations, the wheel starts spinning and you can win from 20 to 1,000 units depending upon where it ends up. 

As corny as it sounds, our favorite hotel was Paris (which owned by Bally's right next door).  The buffet was outstanding and the shopping "street" actually reminded me of Europe.  Each of the major hotels have shopping promenades, of course, and some of them (e.g., Wynn's and Bellagio) are jam-packed with very, very upscale shops.  It's fun to window-shop at the various Armani stores, for example, but there were interesting shops at the Paris Hotel where mere mortals could actually buy something.

Another hotel that was quite stunning was Luxor, which is pretty old now by Las Vegas standards.  The entire hotel and casino is shaped like a giant pyramid, which is guarded by a giant sphinx.  At night, they shoot a beam from the top of the pyramid like some sort of Close Encounter beacon.  The interior is equally interesting.  Down from the Luxor is Mandalay Bay, one of the newer casinos, in which they harbor a Four Seasons Hotel.  Junie and I had lunch at one of their two better restaurants and it was killerbee.  I asked to have the outrageously good bread basket refilled at least once, and drank Pouilly Fuisse.  I also stole the jam basket from the table next to us (the one with the well-dressed young lady who was paying for the breakfast of a seemingly down-on-his-luck young man who was in fact probably a venture capitalist), and netted a cache of Bonne Maman jams for the next morning breakfast (we had already hit the Boulangerie for breakfast goodies earlier in the day).

We stopped by New York, New York but it was pretty dull actually, if you've ever actually been to NYC.  Junie took one look at the roller coaster that wends its way around the outside of the hotel and said no thanks.

Anyway, we had a great time and I recommend it to the decadent among you.  Meanwhile, on the poetry front, Barb Sorenson hosted another terrific MMM Salon on Friday.  Thad Rutkowski kept the audience spell-bound with a mixture of short fiction and near-poetry.  Thad is an award-winning slam poet, but spends most of his time now-a-days writing fiction . . . you know, where the real money is.  Yes, that was a joke.  The next big bash will be the MMM Volume VIII Extravaganza, where there will be readings by as many of the contributors as we can entice to make the trip to Boulder.  Wine and edible goodies will be on us, of course, and a good time will be had by all.

On a more serious note . . . oh, come on, me serious? . . . I'll be reading with 3 other poets at the Cannon Mine reading on (I think) March 13th, which is the second Thursday I hope.  I haven't read very many places actually, except a few radio shows.  So this should be interesting.  I think I will try to find some distinctly whimsical material.

A couple of people have bemoaned the fact that there's no picture of me or Junie. I was behind the camera, so that explains half of it. Junie's identity will remain my secret, so she stays mine forever. Go find you own Sweet Junie.
More tomorrow.  I'm on a roll now.