Springtime in Las Vegas

View of the Paris Hotel's Jules Verne Air Balloon. The letter 'P' in the name Paris points to the exact astrological position of the vernal equinox and our current season - when the sun travels out of Pisces' Winter and moves into Aries' Spring.

Just Cause for March Madness and Spring Fever

In the Northern Hemisphere Springtime begins on March 21. Officially, that is also the first day of Spring in Las Vegas - even though our hot, desert climate causes flowers to bloom here a lot earlier than in most other locales.

With Spring, Las Vegas gets March Madness from basketball and a large influx of college students who arrive from early March until Mid-April (depending on when their school releases them for Spring Break).

Due to the great Spring weather, in Las Vegas, many citizens from all around the world come to enjoy some fun vacation time here after having spent many cold months locked into their hometown's harsher Winters.

Day-time teperatures, this week in Las Vegas, have ranged from 65-74 degrees. This weekend forcasters have predicted temperatures might reach as high as 82 degrees. With Spring, we still can experience many cold and windy desert nights. But it's safe to say that our temperatures will steadily increase as we move closer to our hot summer months.

What does Spring mean for locals in Las Vegas? Well. Besides doing a bit of 'Spring-cleaning' or starting a home desert-gardening project, it's a great time to experience the great weather we have, that tourists often travel 3,000 miles to experience. This means it's time to get out and go walking along the Strip, visiting City Center, seeing the Spring exhibit at Bellagio's Conservatory, or taking a drive to Red Rock Canyon - while the weather is so beautiful.

This is also a good time to go and catch a local bus to see our great RTC system which gets you most anywhere in the valley with no driving to contend with. Spring weather provides a wonderful opportunity to experience many of the great things Las Vegas has to offer its local citizens.

In Vegas, Spring has sprung full-blown and it's Nature's Way of telling you to get out and party !

Water-globe at the Bellagio Conservatory's Spring Floral Exhibit.

Trees and flowers are blooming on the Strip and across the Valley.

Looking southward from Paris Plaza towards City Center.

Looking northward from the Paris Hotel driveway.

The floral exhibit at Bellagio is lots of fun to see, plus it's free.

Bellagio's floral exhibit is full of ants, bees and butterflies...

...and scary, weird, old trees.

Bellagio's Spring Theme continues thru its esplanade...

...upward to the Spring parasols overhead.

The Permanent Spring of Bellagio's lobby.

Spring at the Harmon Towers of City Center.

Flowers blooming in front of Monte Carlo.

With Spring's arrival and the opening of City Center, people are walking more...

...and girls are shopping more.

Who says flowers can't bloom in the desert?

With the right soil and hydration nearly anything can grow.

In South Nevada cherry blossoms and plam trees live side-by-side...

...in the Land of the Free - Las Vegas, USA.

Street Theater on the Vegas Strip

Street-Theater and Street-Performers have been around for centuries. You've seen them in most all the great and large cities of the world and in USA towns like Venice Beach, San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston and New York City.

Las Vegas has its own culture of Street Entertainers. Here, they amuse and entertain tourists and arouse great delight. Our city welcomes them openly to areas of Downtown and The Strip where their mere appearance gets many cameras to clicking.

Street Theater in Las Vegas is of a higher caliber than in most other cities. In Vegas many of these performers and look-a-likes simply get out to publicize their local appearances at nightclubs or to promote their availability for parties and special events.

These performers are some of the best Ambassadors that Las Vegas has.
Where ever you see them, around town, give them a wave and go up and say hello and even try inviting them to lunch. They usually know plenty about what is happening on the streets of Vegas - because they see and hear a lot while they are 'out there'. Just as Vegas Cabbies know the roads of Vegas, these street-entertainers know the sidewalk-activity of Vegas. They can teach us all a thing or two about the up-to-minute buzz on the Boulevard.

Take a look at some of the 'best of the street bunch', in the photos below.


Teva's Webpage & Info

Elvis continues to love Las Vegas and obviously has not "left the building". Teva is the newest and coolest looking Elvis I've seen in a long, long time.

Elvis and Michael Jackson at the Paris Hotel Plaza.

Captain Jack Sparrow in front of Walgreens on the LV Strip.

Michael Jackson gloving in front of the Paris Hotel.

Tony the Tiger and Winnie the Pooh enjoying the Spring Vegas weather.

This violinist is really good.

Another Captain Jack (or a Keith Richards look-a-like) with money in hand.

Star Wars Guy in front of the stores south of the Harley-Davidson Cafe.

Super-polite Greeter-Doorman-Host at the new, Strip Hard Rock Cafe.

The outdoor stage at the Hawaian Marketplace provides entertainment space for performers.

Elvis-Teva. Teva appears on National Geographic's 'World's Toughest Fixes' TV Show this April. The episode is called 'Fixing Vegas' and will show Cirque Du Soleil's "problem stage" and how it gets repaired. Teva can be found appearing around Las Vegas, at the Paris Plaza and around Downtown Fremont Street. You can e-mail Teva at:
kingofvegas007@hotmail.com

Street-Sign Theater appearing on the roof of Daiblo's Cantina.

The sign is reminiscent of the 'Gigantism Signage' used In Old Las Vegas during the 1950s like the Dunes Sultan, Pioneer's Vegas Vic, Sassy Sally, the Silver Slipper and Sahara Camels, etc.

You can see Elvis and Michael Jackson at Paris Plaza or on Fremont Street.

Captain Jack lives in Hollywood and Las Vegas. He is available for parties. You can phone him at 323-703-3943 or e-mail him at the_captain98@yahoo.com

Parties with: 'The Captain'

These photos and others will be posted on a permanent webpage in a much larger format and at a much better image quality than can be viewed on this blog - so check out the link below in a day or so:

West Vegas - Street Theater

In the meanwhile read-up on the interesting history of Street Performers:

History of Street Theater - Wikipedia

Dita in Vegas

Burlesque Revivalist Dita Von Teese appears at the MGM April 1-7

Dita Von Teese - MGM Grand - Ticketmaster
Wednesday March 31 - Wednesday April 7

Dita Von Teese - Biography

The Champagne Glass Dance

Dita (Heather Sweet) in high school.

You can advance to the Champagne Glass segment - seen at 2:11-4:48

Four videos are on this player - 3 of Dita and 1 of the Crazy Horse Girls.

The New Mid-Strip

Walking the Las Vegas Strip

There's a lot more pedestrian foot traffic and activity, on the Strip, than ever before. For the first time since The Strip began, back in 1941, the vacant lots of the Mid-Strip are all filled in with hotels, stores and wide sidewalks - making pedestrian use of the boulevard an easy and enjoyable part of everyone's Vegas Experience .

With the December opening of City Center nearly all of the empty gaps of the southern Mid-Strip properties have been filled in - making the boulevard more appealing for visitors who want to walk from one hotel-casino to the next.

The north end of the Strip has become a virtual no-man's-land of vacant properties and empty spaces, basically from the Sahara Hotel to Wynn's Encore. With the Stardust, the Frontier and assorted gift shops now gone, the north end of the Strip has become an unappealing, long-distanced, turn-off for pedestrian use.

Meanwhile, the Mid-Strip areas from Fashion Show Mall to NYNY have brought new life and much more pedestrian foot-traffic to the hotels from Spring Mountain Road to Tropicana Avenue. With the arrival of City Center and the pedestrian-friendly attractions of Bellagio's fountains, the Paris Plaza , the wide sidewalks of Planet Hollywood and the cool weather of Spring - the Mid-Stip is now noticably alive with lots of people having fun walking.

Pedestrianism is made inviting by the wide sidewalks in front of Ballys, Bellagio, Paris and Planet Hollywood .

The pedestrian-oriented, wide stairways leading into Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops.

A warm Spring night on the Strip, showing the pedestrian bridge leading to Crystals' Mall and City Center.

The leisurely sidewalk at Planet Hollywood.

Open-top, night-bus at the new Harmon Street and LV Blvd intersection .

Crystals, Mandarin, Veer Towers and Harley-Davidson Cafe sights on the south Mid-Strip

Devil Woman above Diablo's Cantina in front of the Monte Carlo Hotel.


Northern Mid-Strip (Flamingo Hotel to TI) seen from Bellagio-Caesars pedestrian bridge

Looking south down Las Vegas Blvd from Flamingo Rd towards Tropicana Ave from one of the busiest intersections in the USA.

Larger and clearer photos can be seen on:

WestVegas.com

Wall of Walken at Aria

Art at Aria by Schnable

I'm in the process of photographing the interior design, restaurants, stores, lounges and layout of the Aria Hotel. I went back there last week to shoot photos of things I missed during Aria's Grand Opening.

While walking past the Union Restaurant I noticed an unusual photo collection hanging on the wall next to The Deuce Lounge. It's an assortment of nine photos of Christopher Walken. I wondered what these odd photos were doing there and figured they might be some sort of advertisement relating to a Chris Walken show or that the photos signified his involvement or ownership in Union or The Duece. Later, I found out the nine photos are simply another art exhibit among the dozens through-out the hotel.

The pieces aren't like typical, everyday, celebrity photos. They go far beyond the average portrait. In fact, the photos looked damaged...like they might have been run over by a truck, rained on and then left abandoned and thrown into some back-alley dumpster. They definitely evoke feelings and emotions of wonder, curiosity, repulsion or fascination about the subject and artist. And their meaning, like all good art is left to the viewer to create or decipher.

I checked up on the artist's name. Julian Schnabel, born in Brooklyn, New York on October 26, 1951 (two months earlier than me). He's accomplished a lot in his 59 years. He's an artist, writer and film director.

In 1987 he published his autobiography titled 'CVJ: Nicknames of Maitre D's & Other Excerpts From Life'. In 1993 he released an album titled 'Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud'.

In 2007 he was voted the best director at the Cannes Film Festival and also won the Golden Globe for best director, plus received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.

Quotes attributed to Schnabel are:

"I'm the closest thing to Picasso that you'll see in this #*@!& life"

"[I'm] aiming at an emotional state, a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed."

This unusual photo-art exhibit is hung on the hallway wall between The Deuce and The Union Restaurant and Bar.

40"x59" Julian Schnabel 'Lincoln Center 25th' print

Seven Walken-ish Videos