Worth my time: Showgirls, Joe Chavira and Elko

I don't read any news source exhaustively, and I don't have time to listen to every episode of every podcast. Neither do you. 

I'm not a news aggregator, nor will I be, but I thought it might be worth sharing things I have consumed, and enjoyed, on an occasional basis. 

The Jeff Does Vegas podcast shared this article in late November, and it provided a great inside look at the world of organized busking. (I like to call those folks tipsters. Take your pick.)

Nevada Independent article

I have long wondered why folks who invest in a decent costume, as well as those who don't try very hard, act as if they're owed an exorbitant fee for posing for pictures. They can't set a fee, of course, but there are enough stories about how awful they get when you try to play dumb, or pass off a couple of bucks as a tip. If I knew they'd be happy with $5 for a picture, wouldn't I be inclined to get more pictures with these tipsters during my Vegas trips? Absolutely. But they realize that plenty of people are easily manipulated into paying far more than $5 for a photo, and this story really drives the point home. 

The article provides a great look at other facets of the business, as well. 

I have enjoyed Sam Novak's writing and photos for years. He is currently the deputy editor of Vegas 411, a website with stories and information that is generally of interest to tourists, and a lot of information you won't find elsewhere. He wrote a two-part story in November about a rather odd celebrity named Joe Chavira. It's a very bizarre story about a guy who nobody knows by name, yet was set to be honored in December. Admittedly, it wasn't a significant honor, but nonetheless it's a crazy story about a guy you've never heard of, and a guy I'm not sure has ever actually entertained anyone. (Word is that he was quietly honored in December, in a manor to avoid a lot of public attention. I can't speak to that with any authority.)

Vegas 411 article 1

Vegas 411 article 2

If nothing else, check out 90 seconds of this video for the song "Tantalize" and you'll be as skeptical as I am that this guy has ever entertained anyone. 

Finally, I don't watch many Vegas YouTube vlogs, because I find them to be too long and relatively uninteresting most of the time, at least for me. There's an audience for watching people dump $100 into a slot machine, but I'm not that audience. 

There are a few folks I will sample the work of occasionally, because they will churn out something worthwhile and interesting. There are a few channels I'll never feature content from, most likely. And they don't need me. They're doing way too well without me. That YouTube money flows like oil from a Texas well, it seems. 

I haven't been a regular viewer of Bobby G’s Gambling Times and Adventures, but I saw one of his recent tweets noting, not to my surprise, that a video referencing legal prostitution has performed very well on his YouTube channel. 

So I checked it out, not because I was hoping to see nearly naked women in the window of a brothel. I'm sure I'm far from the only person who is mildly fascinated to see what life is like in areas of Nevada not associated with Las Vegas. 

I've traveled outside Vegas occasionally, but I haven't driven around the state. In the video below, Bobby G goes to Elko, a modest town that has casinos, and prostitution. It's far from the trappings of Reno. It's not exactly Searchlight, it has 20,000 people or more, so it's not a small, desolate town in the middle of nowhere. And Bobby G's video isn't anything extraordinary, but I found it to be an interesting, simple and entertaining look at a city that has to be a regional epicenter for a lot of old, small towns an hour or more in every direction. It's nearly 300 miles from Elko to Reno, but only 230 miles to Salt Lake City, Utah!