Vegas III, In Review

Usually, I would get excited about going to Las Vegas. I pepper my blog with Pre-Vegas themed entries (such as Top 5 Vegas Movies, and Vegas Tips). That is if I know if I am going in advance. I found out about the latest and third trip to the real city that never sleeps about an hour and a half before takeoff. I had plans with my fiancée to celebrate her birthday (Thursday), wander around the Uptown Art Fair (Friday), and see one of my favorite bands, Flogging Molly, at the Irish Fair (Saturday). But first, we were going to pick up a friend of hers from high school at the airport on Wednesday night.

When we get there, I spotted my best man and one of my poker buddies. Confused, I asked the natural question.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You're going to Vegas."

"I'm not going to no Vegas. I'm not packed."

"Yeah, you are," D said as she popped the trunk and pulled out my suitcase, and my computer bag (which I still want to know how she did that without me knowing). "It's your bachelor party."

It slowly started to dawn on me that D's plans for a weekend were not only a cover, but prevented me from making other plans. There was no friend of hers at the airport; it was just to get me to drive out there with her. So three friends of mine (and one we'd meet with out there) flew away to the Ian Shane preferred vacation spot. Lots of things were going on for the trip, so I'll just give you the Reader's Digest condensed version of the trip.

-Had a great room at the Luxor, however I found it amusing that they were trying to brand themselves as the "green" casino by installing energy efficient lights and a requesting that we re-use towels to save water. Keep in mind that this is the casino that has 7 high powered lights that shoot a beam into the air for no real reason.

-Playing poker in Vegas is not as scary as you would think. The prevailing logic is that the best of the best go there to play. It's poker Top Gun, and if you are a middle of the pack kind of player (which I am), then you'll lose quickly and you won't have any fun. The truth is that you're not going to find Dan Harrington playing a $52 dollar buy in tournament at the Lux, or a 1-2 no limit game. The fact is poker rooms are usually populated with drunken rubes and first timers. These are the people who watched maybe one or two WSOP tape delays and thought "This is easy. Anybody can do this." The way they play makes you believe that they would be more than willing to give you their money directly, but since poker room rules prohibit such acts of charity, they'll limp into a pot with a pocket Jack/4. If you play a patient game (which I admit, I didn't the last night there…fatigue was starting to set in.) you can walk away with a bit of money. I was up 100 bucks in 45 minutes in 1-2 no limit the first time I played.

-I don't care what the "How to Play Blackjack" books say about odds, when a dealer shows a six, nine times out of ten, the under card is a five, and the dealer will pull a face on the draw. Conversely, when you have an 11 and you double down, you'll draw a two 90% of the time.

-Never, never, NEVER play roulette. It's a game specifically designed to draw in newbies and rubes who think that they can beat the odds.

-Girls who wear the "Las Vegas Hottie" T-shirts aren't fooling anyone.

-Las Vegas is Spanish for "The Buffet". Which if you are looking for a great place to have a reception dinner after your Vegas wedding, it's not a bad place to be. You're paying 26 bucks a person, and you let the guests decide what they want. You don't have to painstakingly go through menu options. As long as your jerky guests don't do the annoying clinking of the glass to get the bride and groom to kiss, then you're welcome anytime.

-Pound for pound, I still say that Fremont is the place to be. I love the old school Vegas. We played poker at the Fitz, and it was the highlight of the gaming portion of the trip (although it may be the highlight because I finished better than everyone else in the party, and sixth out of 33 entrants).

-Trip highlight was the Diana Krall show at the Palms. The show was great, and her version of "Jockey Full of Bourbon" was lights out. If there's a Tom Waits song being performed by someone other than Waits, then it damn well better be Diana.

By the time we got on the plane, I was ready to leave that wretched place, and looking forward to the next time I go.

Oh Well…

Originally posted on my Indianapolis Star blog "Tales of a Hoosier Ex-Pat"

Several years ago, my friend Jeff told me that he had a great idea for a screenplay. It was a spoof of a zombie movie.

"It's time for one," he said.

Then he went to see a movie called Shaun of the Dead, and he saw his movie play out in front of him. Jeff sat there in horror as he saw three or four things that he had already written in his unfinished screenplay (all of which prompted great laughter by the audience.)

He told me that it was the worst feeling he ever had as a writer, and he hoped that it would never happen to me.

Let's fast forward to 2007. I had started to put together my first feature length screenplay. It was the result of nine years of research. I had downloaded FBI files, and read biographies. I was 30 pages into a screenplay titled Public Enemy. It started in Tucson, Arizona January 30, 1934 as John Dillinger was set to be extradited to Indiana to face charges that he killed a police officer during a bank robbery in East Chicago.

I was feeling pretty good about the story and what I had written, until D and I went back to Indiana for the holidays. As we were on the way back to Minnesota, I heard a report on Wisconsin Public Radio about how Badger State favorite son, Michael Mann, was going to be in the state shooting a film. I like Michael Mann, so the story caught my attention.

"The untitled film stars Johnny Depp and focuses on the life of John Dillinger."

What did that reporter say?

It was just another excuse to hate Wisconsin.

I immediately put the project on the back burner. My friends who were aware of the project urged me to reconsider, and to continue to work on it.

"It could be totally different than what you're writing," DeAnna said. "He could screw it up. Michael Mann isn't infallible. Look at Heat."

I held on to that hope, but still had the project in suspended animation. I would take a wait and see approach.

Then I saw the trailer, and I wept.

Like Jeff, I sat in horror as I saw one scene exactly as I had envisioned, and one as I had written. I knew what he was feeling in that California movie theater five years ago.

I haven't seen Public Enemies yet. But I will sometime, and I'm going to be keeping notes. I know the history, and I will be the movie's toughest critic. I already have some problems with it. Christian "Good For You" Bale is not who I would cast as Melvin Purvis. And for as much as I love Marion Cotillard (she would be in a laminated list), who is certainly beautiful enough to play Billie Frechette, I still can't figure out what her accent is all about. Research, Michael!

Until then, Public Enemy is a dead project. It may be resurrected in 10 or 15 years, but I don't hold out much hope for it.

Chevelure (am I right?)

So, it's been almost two years since I have put together an actual mix CD. Since then, I have added to the Anthology Collection (which doesn't count as a mix CD), a couple of iTunes playlists, and a Facebook playlist. Still, nothing compares to sitting down and making the list, listening to it, make a rough draft disc, and figuring out what works and what doesn't. There were some songs that didn't make the cut to this on (Ray Charles's version of Eleanor Rigby, for one).

There is a bit of a pattern here, as there has been in some of my more recent mixes. There is a Tori Amos cover, an Elvis Costello song (also a cover), and Tom Waits. Sounds oh so much like every mix I've put together since 2002. However, since D likes all three, they are in (she is the one I'm making this for—and that she likes all three is more proof that I am marrying the right woman). There are eight covers on this CD (unintentional at first, but then it became a game of how many I could fit in), vocals by an Evansville native, and a couple of songs that I have rediscovered because of the huge CD backup project (which is still in progress).

Track List

House of the Rising Sun – Nina Simone
Sweet Home Chicago – Robert Johnson
I Put a Spell on You – Screaming Jay Hawkins
Baby, Please Don't Go – Them
Lady Godiva's Operation – The Velvet Underground
Angel – Jimi Hendrix
Behind Blue Eyes – Sheryl Crow
Oh Darling – Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (with John Cowan)
Let's Get it On – Jack Black
You Are The Best Thing – Ray LaMontagne
Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop – Landon Pigg
Place To Be – Nick Drake
The Drugs Don't Work – Ben Harper
For You – Format
War Torn – Nicole Atkins
Thoroughfare – Rebecca Martin
All Through the Night – Tori Amos
Mama Told Me Not To Come – Randy Newman
Innocent When You Dream – Elvis Costello
Straight to the Top (Vegas) – Tom Waits

Chevelure (am I right?) Playlist created 7 June, 2009 for his beautiful fiancée. An Ian Shane Joint.