The Christmas spirit is everywhere in Vegas

I haven't found time to write about my early December visit to Vegas, but that will change soon.

For now, here's a collection of Christmas tree pictures from my recent trip. I hope I remember the location of each of these. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not a shutterbug, but I have carried a digital camera with me in the past. Cellphone cameras are so good these days that I am content with relying upon it for capturing images from my trips. I have plenty to share in the weeks to come. I won't win any awards for my photography, but I can live with that. Photography is not an art form I have the time or patience to study. Plenty of people are better than I ever will be, and I appreciate those who share their work with the masses. How did we enjoy life without the internet?

Merry Christmas!

Outside the New York New York, I believe. (Dec. 3)

Big tall tree in the outdoor park area of Park MGM, leading up to T-Mobile Arena. (Dec. 3)

Modest trees inside The Shops at Crystals. (Dec. 3)

And then there's the Swarovski crystal tree at the Shops at Crystals. (Dec. 3)

This giant tree looms large over Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. (Dec. 3)

This modest tree was near the poker room at The Orleans. (Dec. 4)

A lovely tree near the entrance to the cafe at Ellis Island. (Dec. 4)

A fancier tree display near the hotel check-in at The Orleans. (Dec. 4)

One of the trees along the retail mall area leading into Bellagio. (Dec. 5)

An off-center shot of another tree inside Bellagio. (Dec. 5)

The big tree inside Bellagio's conservatory. (Dec. 5)

A tree inside Caesars Palace. (Dec. 5)

A tree outside The Cromwell (Dec. 5)

A tree and menorah inside El Cortez (Dec. 7)

Small, but festive, this tree can be found inside The Mint. (Dec. 7)

#VegasHalloween (day 3): The best day of the year, unless you're Joe

Some of us have a favorite day of the year.

If I have one, it's Halloween.

I can't fully explain why I've come to love Halloween as much as I do, but part of me wishes I had this much Halloween enthusiasm 20 years ago.

Nonetheless, Halloween 2017 was my fifth Halloween in Vegas during the past seven years. I won't recount each of them since my first in 2011. The main reason I haven't been to Vegas on Halloween for seven years in a row: When it falls on a weekend, I am working at my haunted attraction here in Minnesota.

I started my morning with a 9 a.m. road trip. As noted from day 2, we didn't have any sort of non-stick coating for the frying pan, and I also needed one thing I forgot to bring with me from Minnesota. So it was off to Target. Having a rental car makes such trips possible.

It was a short, easy drive to Target, according to my phone map. I didn't have to fight with heavy traffic or hit the freeway to get to a Target store. The location of the nearby Target store turned out to be quite fortunate, as I would soon learn.

My friend Joe gave me cash to make a couple of sports bets for him while I was in Vegas. I warned him that I was staying at a time share property and wouldn't have automatic access to a sports book whenever he decided to make a bet. It turned out that he wanted to bet on two Monday games, but I wasn't leaving Tahiti Village until after 5 p.m., so there was little chance I would be able to make a bet for him. (Had I been able to, he would have won one bet and lost the other.) I asked at the concierge desk where the nearest sports book might be, and the woman said South Point, which she suggested was a quarter-mile south of Tahiti Village, I swear.

That sounded great, but I would learn two important things on Halloween morning: South Point was three-and-a-half miles away, and Silverton Casino was closer. Perhaps I simply misheard the woman the previous day.

So following my brief visit to Target on Halloween morning I was off to Silverton Casino, as Joe had already texted a Tuesday evening sports bet he wanted to place. There was only one problem, I assumed there was a turn to access the property after Dean Martin Drive. I was wrong. Next thing I know, I'm heading toward a variety of freeway options, and I'm not sure what I should do. Fortunately I chose to go southbound, which turned out to be a happy accident.

I drove a few miles down the freeway to the next exit, which happened to the exit for South Point. At that point it was clear that Silverton was my more convenient casino option. I asked my phone to map me back to Silverton and it basically suggested driving through a neighborhood south of the casino, parallel to the freeway. Fine with me!

It's funny how fascinating neighborhoods are in an area of the country where you don't live. I drove along neighborhoods full of modest homes, many of which seemed to be warehousing a boat, RV or some other mode of transportation in the driveway or elsewhere on the property. As I've come to expect, there's not a yard to speak of outside many of the houses, and it didn't seem like many of the houses had a lot of personal space around them. I'm sure there were plenty of patios with chairs for people to sit outside their homes when it wasn't scorching hot, but not that I could tell. I don't spend a ton of time sitting in my back yard, but I'm glad I have the space when I want it.

I was surprised to pass a roadside produce market of some sort during this five-minute drive. I didn't stop, but I couldn't help but wonder what they sold at this parcel of property between my car and the freeway. I do know they sold pumpkins, that was clear.

As I neared Silverton I saw a gated neighborhood that looked a little fancier. I was curious to know how big and fancy the homes were in that neighborhood.

Destination reached, I headed inside and quickly found my way to the sports book. Silverton has a large, pleasant casino floor, and it's rather quiet around there on a Tuesday morning in late October. People were few and far between. I bet $50 for Joe on an NBA game between two bad teams, and I felt like I was inconveniencing the guys at the sports book by showing up to place a wager. I also added $20 of my own money to the wager. I figured I wanted in on Joe's action.

It took me a minute to place the wager, because Joe wanted to bet on the Nets. I kept looking at the board and couldn't find a Tuesday night NBA game featuring New Jersey. It was only after looking at the printed odds sheet for the day's NBA action that I realized he was betting on the Brooklyn Nets. That shows you how much I follow the NBA these days.

I then returned to Tahiti Village with cheap sticks of margarine from Target to make omelets for our breakfast. From there it was out to the pool. I chose to wear pieces of last year's Halloween costume to the pool.

It's the Halloween costume that keeps on giving. A woman I passed in the lobby of our building was inspired to sing a Village People song. My ears are still bleeding.

Our lunch break was at the Tahiti Village bar/restaurant. They had a coupon in the booklet they gave us for a deal on two pizzas, so we ordered two and had leftovers to take back to the room. The pizza was decent and the price was fair, but my girlfriend's pint of craft beer was no bargain at $8. Oh well, $39 for lunch, including tip. And that was with a coupon. It would prove to be our most expensive meal of the day.

We spent additional time at the pool before getting ready for Halloween. We didn't take a picture of us together, although we planned to. My girlfriend put together a hat and necklace she ordered with a few black items to be a witch. I, inspired prior to Halloween 2016, went as writer/director/actor Kevin Smith.

Halloween was the night we decided to leave the car behind. I don't typically drink so much that I can't drive, but we decided that if there was going to be such a night, Halloween was it. Fortunately Tahiti Village has free shuttles, including a couple that run downtown during the evenings. We knew enough to sign up in advance, and did so on Monday. Our return trip, had we wanted it, was 2-3 hours after we arrived outside Golden Nugget, but we knew we'd stay downtown late, so we opted to take Lyft back to the resort.

Joe had texted me that afternoon, asking me to put $50 on the Houston Astros in the World Series. Same problem as Monday, I wouldn't get to a sports book in time on Halloween. (Houston would lose that game.) He later asked me to put $50 on the Detroit Pistons, who were playing that night in Los Angeles. That I was able to do at Golden Nugget.

We ate dinner at the Main Street Station buffet on Halloween night. Folks who dress up for Halloween don't tend to dine at the MSS buffet, I learned. We had a two-for-one coupon from Las Vegas Advisor, so we paid about $16 for our two meals. It was BBQ night, unfortunately, and none of their meats were going to be as good as what we had the previous night at Ellis Island, but we found enough to get by for the evening. I certainly didn't overeat. Our cheap, mediocre dinner reminded me why I stick to breakfast when I visit a Vegas buffet.

Halloween night on Fremont Street is a busy, crowded party. It was far more crowded up and down the street on Halloween 2017 than it was on Halloween 2011. I don't recall, but perhaps there weren't bars outside every casino in 2011. The lines for those bars certainly doesn't help the human flow. Between the lines at the bars and the crowds gathered at the music stages, it's a slow, chaotic mess for most of the evening. I wouldn't be able to put up with that on a nightly basis, but for Halloween, my tolerance is rather high.

If this is Halloween, I don't want to be there on New Year's Eve.

You see lots of creativity and bizarreness on Halloween night. I love gawking at all the nifty, head-scratching and barely-there costumes. We popped into a casino occasionally to gamble for a few minutes and escape the madness outside.

My costume wasn't one that is easily identifiable to most people, but I received an occasional comment from somebody who knew what I was going for. A guy came up to me on Fremont and his girlfriend wanted a picture of him and me together. I didn't immediately realize he was going as Kevin Smith, too. He said he slapped his costume together that afternoon. You can's see it in the picture below, but he was wearing more traditional denim shorts. I was wearing the longer "jorts" that Kevin Smith prefers.

Who is more convincing as Kevin Smith?

Late in the evening I was walking through Golden Nugget to meet up with my girlfriend, and a guy sitting at a machine saw me. He was a big Kevin Smith fan, evidently, and jumped out of his seat to greet me. He asked if I'd take a picture with him, which I did. He asked his buddy sitting nearby to take the pic, and his buddy seemed slightly inconvenienced by it all.

Years ago they had a parade on Halloween night that ended near the Fremont Street Experience, and a small street party, of sorts. That doesn't quite happen any more, but perhaps they had a portion of Fremont East closed for Halloween. We never ventured past Neonopolis.

There were a few vendors on the side street toward Downtown Grand. I think one was selling temporary tattoos, or something like that, and another might have had Halloween movie memorabilia, or something of the sort. I didn't look too close, but the whole thing seemed kind of lame, including the small "haunted house" they had set up there. It was definitely small, so perhaps it was a more involved experience than simply walking through tarp hallways inside a giant tent structure set up on the street, but it looked pathetic, and not many people appeared to be lining up for the $10 experience, even on Halloween. I'd love to hear one person's report of how good or bad it was.

I don't recall what the hearse (or was it an ambulance) parked at this Halloween market represented, but it was as good of a place as any to get one decent picture of me on Halloween.

A few friends think I look a lot like Kevin Smith.

We made a late evening appearance inside the new downtown White Castle. I don't love the restaurant, but I don't hate it. I am lucky if I go once in a year here in Minnesota. I wasn't interested in eating, but my girlfriend needed a small snack. On Halloween night it was a very popular place. It only took about 10 or 12 minutes to order food, but we waited at least 20 minutes after ordering to receive our modest order. We did sit down at a table while waiting, and a guy who was leaving --  and had bought a sack of 10 sliders -- offered half of his food to me and those sitting near me. So I had a slider despite my intention not to.

White Castle, in Vegas or anywhere else, becomes far more appealing after a night of drinking.

We ordered our Lyft at about 2 a.m., so it was close to 3 a.m. by the time we got to bed. There would be no hot tub on Halloween night. After eight hours downtown, we were ready for bed.

Halloween on a cold night in Minnesota, especially when it falls on a weeknight, is far from exciting. I can promise you I have 100 times more fun on Halloween in Vegas, and if the stars align in 2018, I'll be back in Sin City to do it all over again.

Oh yeah, regarding Joe's $50 bets on Brooklyn and Detroit, they were both the favorites, and they both lost. The only gambling I did downtown on Halloween night was at Golden Nugget. I wasted $10 on a machine and lost a $10 match play on roulette. With my $20 loss on Joe's Brooklyn Nets bet and dropping $20 at the Nugget, I was down $40 for the day.

My nieces would enjoy this colorful costume. 

This is what you get when you buy a bunch of overpriced costume pieces thru Amazon. Yeah, it's the "Macho Man," but not a very impressive effort. 

I didn't get very good pics of these guys, but they had different versions of the same costume idea. It's a clever bit, but if that' becomes the extent of my Halloween effort in Vegas, I'll no longer make the trip. 

If you're familiar with the DC superhero universe, then you'll recognize this guy as Aquaman. Perhaps not the most athletic depiction of Aquaman I've ever seen.

This wa a nice, simple, creepy look... but I did a lousy job of capturing it.

Let your freak flag fly on Halloween night in Vegas!

Nice homage to the little purple guy from Minnesota.

I found another "Macho Man" late in the evening. The addition of a "Miss Elizabeth" was a nice touch.

Not a great picture, but you can see that there's a group costume theme happening here. These folks were bandoleros, I suppose. I'm not sure wearing bandoliers of bullets is the most sensitive thing to do in Vegas 30 nights after a mass shooting on the south end of the strip.

Is Derek Stevens the worst thing to happen to Las Vegas?

Last week I was minding my own business late one evening when vitalvegas.com broke the news that the brothers Stevens were buying three small properties under the canopy of the Fremont Street Experience. I had better things to do, yet I stopped everything I was doing to type my reaction to the news.

The Stevens brothers own The D and Golden Gate, two very different casino/hotel properties in downtown Las Vegas. Last year they purchased the fledgling Vegas Club, a dying casino that had been all but gutted. The hotel towers had been shuttered for a couple of years and the retail and dining portions of the building were vacant at the time of the purchase. With the Stevens brothers purchasing the Vegas Club it was time to nail that coffin shut. We collectively await the future of the property. Given their past success, expectations for Vegas Club are high, and rightfully so. The lads know what they're doing.

Although I periodically hear references to Derek and Greg Stevens, it's Derek that's the face of the operation. Derek is pictured in D promotions, he is known to hang out and mingle with D customers and he doesn't shy away from the media. As I type this I'm listening to him talk about his latest acquisitions on the Vital Vegas podcast.

As the podcast reiterates, Derek is not a faceless Fremont Street casino owner. I think that's pretty cool. Most casinos are owned by corporations, and their customers are unable to put a face or name to the casino's ownership. The only other 2016 casino mogul who comes to mind off the top of my head is Steve Wynn. (I don't think Sheldon Adelson has that much street cred.)

But being the name and the face of a casino, or a group of casinos, comes at a price.

The internet reaction to last week's acquisition news was hot and heavy. The Stevens brothers purchased two small casino properties last week, as well as the only strip club in downtown Las Vegas, Glitter Gulch. The businesses they purchased are adjacent to Golden Gate and the former Vegas Club properties. (There's a souvenir shop sandwiched between the acquisitions on the Vegas Club side of Fremont, people have noted.)

There wasn't much excitement about the acquisitions, as it doesn't appear that anybody was rooting for either casino to shut down. But that's the plan for all three businesses.

On the Golden Gate side is La Bayou, which is best known for its cheap gut-rot daiquiris. On the Vegas Club side is Mermaids, which is known for its cheap eats, including odd deep-fried foods.

Both casinos are small slot machine rooms, there are no table games. The loss of the gaming along Fremont Street isn't a big deal. There are thousands of machines to choose from up and down Fremont.

While I said there wasn't much excitement regarding the acquisition news, that doesn't mean everybody was sad to learn of the impending closing of the businesses. Plenty of people couldn't care less that two colorful, quirky casinos are closing down. The gaming, daiquiris and deep-fried Twinkies offered by the properties are of no appeal to plenty of people, so the loss of the game rooms doesn't affect them at all. And plenty of people said so via Facebook discussions, Vital Vegas comments and news report comments.

There is a faction of Vegas fanatics that welcomes anything the Stevens brothers do with any property downtown, as they are confident that properties under their thumb will be put to higher and better uses.

I wrote within an hour of the news breaking that I was saddened by the loss of the small, quirky properties that help give Fremont Street its colorful character. Even though I am confident the Stevens brothers will hit another home run, that doesn't stop me from being sad.

And I'm not the only one. Plenty of people proclaimed that their downtown Vegas experience is being ruined.

It seems that there are two things people love about the small game rooms. Some people love them because the complimentary cocktails for gamblers come fast and furious. If you sit down at a machine and insert $20 you'll receive more than your share of drinks in short order, I've read.

Others really love the cheap, low-fat snacks served at Mermaids. There are cheap eats to be had downtown, but the grub at Mermaids is about as cheap as it comes.

Yeah, people are bummed out about the impending closures for a few reasons. Some accept it as part of the inevitable change that defines Vegas. Others, however, are convinced that Derek Stevens, specifically, is the spawn of Satan. Perhaps the brothers are twins. Derek is clearly the evil twin, therefore Greg by definition must be the good one.

Derek is a bloodthirsty throwback to the days of mob rule, aiming to drive up prices along Fremont Street at all costs, and bleed every dollar he can out of its tourists. He is single-handedly ruining downtown Las Vegas by trying to win a real life game of Monopoly. He's ruining downtown, absolutely destroying it, some have proclaimed.

Those folks are probably right.

You have to believe that buying a major casino like The D, formerly Fitzgeralds, and pouring cash into its upgrade, renovation and rebranding was driven by a desire to bleed and/or drive away those who have enjoyed downtown during the past decade.

And we all know that when you invest in a property you should never invest in its improvement. The goal should be to squeeze every drop out of the oranges you have purchased, allowing the property to deteriorate, then sell it for less than you paid years earlier.

Sarcasm aside, I've stayed at The D. I'm not a high roller, yet I have stayed there a couple of times. The property is in good shape and the rates have been very reasonable. And that's before taking advantage of offers I've received as a member of the casino's players club. It has been a couple of years since I last stayed there, so perhaps the deals of the past are now ghosts, but I've found The D to be an inviting property, and not one designed to siphon cash out of my pocket. You get what you pay for, and more.

Nobody wants to be the low-rent, rundown casino on the block. But those are the casinos that are ripe for the picking, and if you have a healthy checkbook when you buy them, you can invest in a much more prosperous future, should you so desire. The Stevens boys clearly set out to do so when they make a purchase, and that doesn't make them public enemy No. 1 in my book.

Do the brothers need to purchase ancillary properties such as Mermaids and La Bayou to succeed? No, they don't, but they're in a position to do so, and if the loss of those colorful, goofy game rooms is the price visitors pay for the success the Stevens brothers have reaped, that's the way it goes. Fremont Street will not be ruined for everyone as a result of the acquisitions, only for those who proclaim it via the internet.

I'm saddened by the loss of the last of the small game rooms on Fremont Street, but I'm expecting bigger and better things to come from their demise. Derek Stevens is catching a lot of bricks from plenty of people, but I'll toss a bouquet his direction. He's investing in downtown rather than maintaining the status quo. And he is far from monopolizing the casino scene along Fremont Street. He couldn't ruin downtown if he tried, despite what the naysayers will tell you.

And despite all those who bemoan his negative effects upon downtown, I have yet to read one comment bemoaning the loss of Glitter Gulch. Every comment from anyone who has ever visited that strip club oozes with regret.

Congratulations Derek, you did OK.

Can we have a jazz funeral for La Bayou?

It's not quite as big of a deal as the closing of Riviera, or even the Las Vegas Club, yet somehow it feels like it to me.

I hadn't planned to take a four-month sabattical from this blog – and I have no shortage of ideas I'd like to write about – but here I am, shortly before 1 a.m. here in Minnesota typing my first entry in months, and it's about the closing of three insignificant properties under the canopy of the Fremont Street Experience.

I just stumbled upon the news moments ago, courtesy of Vital Vegas, one of my regular go-to sources for Vegas information. Within the past hour the Vital Vegas guru, who by day works for the Fremont Street Experience, reported that Derek Stevens, the face of The D and Golden Gate casinos, has purchased three downtown businesses, and presumably the property upon which they sit. Stevens and his brother, who seems to shun the limelight, are the owners of Mermaids and La Bayou, two slots only game rooms, and Glitter Gulch, the downtown strip club.

As Vital Vegas nicely explains, these businesses – which I presume have been under the same ownership prior to Stevens' purchase – are strategically beneficial to the growing Stevens empire. La Bayou is adjacent to Golden Gate, the smaller casino owned by the brothers Stevens, and Mermaids and Glitter Gulch are next to the shuttered Las Vegas Club, which the Stevens own and plan to redevelop.

The Stevens boys run excellent casinos, and their acquisition of the sickly Vegas Club ensures they'll turn the tired old property into a successful downtown hotspot when all is said and done. The acquisition of the small casinos and the strip club will help them grow the Golden Gate and presumably create a much larger frontage for the new Vegas Club development.

And yet I'm saddened by this.

There was nothing extraordinary about La Bayou or Mermaids. I'm pretty sure both have been re-imagined since my first visit downtown more than 19 years ago. La Bayou is smaller than some of the gift shops on Fremont Street, and I don't go there to gamble. But it has a fun, colorful theme and sells all those fancy daiquiris that people covet when in New Orleans.

Mermaids has a larger gaming floor, comparable to the larger gift shops on Fremont, and its quirky draw is its weird, cheap food.

Years ago I could find all sorts of odd, cheap eats along the strip. The days of the half-pound hot dog and cheap strawberry shortcake seem to be over. Mermaids offered a few wacky, relatively cheap eats that were fun to indulge in when you were in Vegas. And I enjoyed its colorful facade.

According to Vital Vegas, it is expected both of those game rooms, and the strip club, will be out of business in about two months.

I've wondered why there's a strip club on Fremont, and only one. I suspect that its existence is a result of some quirky legal manuever in the past that grandfathered it in, but I've never asked. I won't miss it, but I always appreciated the "Golden Goose" and "Glitter Gulch" neon signs above the building.

Change is constant in Vegas, and I've seen plenty of it in the Fremont area over the years. A lot of it has been for the better, no doubt. But losing a few unique, small businesses saddens me. I liked the colorful diversity of those little businesses. Yeah, there are a million slot machines in the greater Vegas area, and plenty downtown, but when the property acquired by the Stevens' is absorbed by their larger holdings, we'll likely never see cute little game rooms juxtaposed with big downtown casinos ever again.

We bemoan the loss of local, independent, mom-and-pop businesses in towns across America. When Walmart moves into an area, there's a certain amount of dread that comes with it, because the mighty retailer will put nails in the coffins of at least a few local businesses.

Nobody would compare the Stevens to the Waltons, but the Stevens empire is having a similar affect upon the Fremont district, even if the Stevens are building Targets instead of Walmarts.

The three shuttering businesses may not evoke the same emotion as the Riviera's closing did a year ago, but their existence were the last connections we had to the smaller, simpler casinos of yesteryear.

Everybody loves a parade?

An hour ago I read the news that the 2015 Las Vegas Halloween parade is not happening.

I've had mixed feelings about the Halloween parade for years, but I'm sorry to read it's not happening in 2015, even if I won't be there.

This year was to be the sixth annual parade. A vague Facebook post suggests that the lack of a supporter/producer has resulted in the scuttling of this year's parade, but an organizer plans to carry on in 2016, bigger and better than ever.

One of the reasons cited as a challenge in 2015 is that the parade would be on a Saturday, since it has always been held on Halloween night. Based on past parades, this year's parade and post-parade festivities were estimated to draw more than 100,000 people. I'm not sure how that figure is calculated, and it seems a bit high to me, but the parade does draw additional pedestrian traffic to the Fremont East area. More than other events that happen east of the downtown canopy? I can't say.

This much I know, I attended the second annual parade in 2011. Back then the parade started south of Fremont Street, worked its way north, crossed Fremont and ended. There was some sort of disco dance party in a lot north of Fremont, but I didn't wander over to it.

There were hundreds of people gathered to participate in the parade that Monday evening. The parade doubled as a costume contest, featuring several categories. Parade participants weren't obligated to enter the contest in order to join the march north to Fremont. I was among those who made the trek, and I didn't enter the contest.

The parade featured a variety of vehicles with a Halloween theme, but overall it wasn't a massive parade. It had the chance to be a great spectacle, but the parade's execution was lacking.

That's because there was a judging stage with "celebrity" judges a block or two before Fremont, as well as bleacher seating for spectators. Participants in each category were judged at this point in the parade, and it created an uneven flow to the parade. For participants like me, who just wanted to make the stroll toward downtown while in costume for the hundreds gathered along the street, the judging station didn't play well. For those who wanted to see the parade participants in action at Fremont Street, it made for a rather unspectacular parade, as best I could tell.

I returned to Vegas for Halloween in 2012 and 2013, but I didn't seek out the parade. Since my 2011 experience, the parade has changed its route, moving its starting point further east on Fremont and working its way back toward the canopy. At the conclusion of the parade a portion of Fremont Street is closed for a street party of sorts. I wandered through the area in 2013, and while it wasn't anything magical, it was a fun way to wander about with costumed characters spending their Halloween in Sin City.

Having a parade on Halloween night is a curious choice. It's not likely to draw families, as children are more likely to want to go trick-or-treating, I would imagine. Since it's a Sin City parade, and at night, it attracts a bit of an element that's not exactly family oriented, so perhaps it's a good thing that it's held on Halloween night and not the last Saturday afternoon of the month.

Since it's always on Halloween, it's on a night that will perpetually draw a larger-than-average crowd to popular gathering places, such as the Fremont Street corridors. I was a bit overwhelmed by my last Halloween under the canopy in 2013. That was a Thursday night, and navigating through the crowd was harder than I had ever experienced.

While I'm skeptical of how big the parade's draw is, and I'm not in a hurry to see or experience the parade again, I hope that the grassroots effort to build a downtown Halloween event will continue, despite this year's hiccup. I have long enjoyed the creativity and fun that the Halloween season brings, and even when Halloween is on a Saturday night here in Minnesota, you won't find any gathering here that rivals Halloween night in Vegas. The parade certainly added to that, and like most things I suspect it was getting better with age. I'll be in Vegas for Halloween 2016, I hope my theory will be proven correct.

You can hardly contain yourself

It took me a year-and-a-half to get there, but in May I finally got a look at the Downtown Container Park.

I don't have anything brilliant to say about it. I spent a couple of hours there, and I spent very little during my visit. 

In a nutshell: It's a unique retail and restaurant concept that is well done, and will likely inspire imitations, if it's not already. (Is the Vegas version a replication of the concept?)

DCP is impressive. They took metal containers, the type that are used to ship goods around the world, and fashioned them into a three-level mall. There are plenty of stairways, and an elevator, to help you reach each level. There are a a variety of specialty retailers, as well as several restaurants. There's a playground in the middle of it, and a stage at the far end where they provide entertainment during the evening. 

It's simple, it's unnecessary and it's worth a visit. I wouldn't say that you should add it to your Vegas bucket list, but it's worth seeing if you're downtown.

The shops aren't targeted for the tourist crowd. Sure, plenty of tourists will find their way to DCP, but it's not the place to go for Las Vegas ashtrays and T-shirts. The small shops squeezed into the stacked, adjoining metal containers feature a wide array of products, from socks to jewelry. There are products that would be easy to take home in your suitcase or carry-on bag, but there are things that would pose a challenge to squeeze into said bags when it's time to head to the airport. Keep that in mind.

My favorite shop was Kappa Toys. Sure, they're selling commercial products, stuff that can be found elsewhere, but they cram a lot into that store, offer plenty of things you won't find at your local Target store and seem to have something for everyone, from the youngsters to the young at heart. 

There are a variety of restaurants, and one or two places that only serve beverages, if I recall correctly. I didn't sample any of the food, so I can't say what you should or shouldn't try, but I've read more than one review of DCP and it sounds like there are some good eats to be had. 

I sense that in the summer you had better be careful about what you touch as you walk around. Metal in the desert, that has got to get hot. 

And I wonder how well the shops on the third level do. It's a lot of fun exploring the shops and following the nifty walkways they've created to connect all the shops, but I imagine a lot of people don't end up seeing every shop, and the third level stores don't have the benefit of people walking by like the shops on the ground floor do. 

However they work it out, there wasn't an empty space to be found in May, and I think the concept was designed to offer an affordable way for would-be Trumps to launch their global empire. 

DCP is on Fremont Street, a block past El Cortez as you make your way east of the canopy.

It's worth a visit if you're downtown, especially before the evening shenanigans begin under the canopy. 

I know I'll be back.

Surviving Vegas the new-fashioned way

Not so long ago I stumbled upon a Facebook page for a web series called "Surviving Vegas a Buck at a Time." How it came to my attention I really don't remember.

The show calls itself a web-based reality series. It appears to be primarily the work of a duo, which appears to have spent a lot of time putting it all together. As best as I can tell the series was filmed in 2013 and released earlier this year. The 14 episodes are about 10 minutes each, and are all available on the Youtube channel for the series. In addition to the episodes there are several promo videos and bonus videos for each episode, it appears. (I'm still in the process of watching the bonus videos.) They're also in the process of translating the episodes into Spanish, evidently. That seems darn ambitious.

The series features four "buskers," or as I like to call them, "tipsters." The prodcucers profile a couple of older gents who portray Cupid and Gene Simmons, a woman who dons a Strawberry Shortcake outfit which is rather revealing and a guy they dub "Steeler Nation."

Tipsters aren't a new phenomena, but you didn't see them in Vegas five or seven years ago. There was a time when I'd encounter "porn slappers" on the strip and an occasional timeshare hawker. Downtown, I'd rarely encounter anybody soliciting anything. I never saw porn slappers, and don't remember seeing many homeless folk asking for a spare change. That changed several years ago with the emergence of tipsters, although the porn slappers don't seem too interested in marketing toward the penny pinchers associated with the downtown scene. Increasingly I'm seeing a growth in performance art downtown, such as dance crews and puppeteers, as well as people hawking balloon animals and flowers made out of palms, or something like that.

"Surviving Vegas" shows the tipsters at work, but also delves into their personal lives. Each tipster has a different story as to why he or she is working the streets, and they're not simply a group of out-of-work folks with limited skills. While I found Steeler Nation to be the most interesting character, I remember least what his reason is for working the streets.

Besides the main four characters, you will see other tipsters at work now and then, and one episode spends most of its time devoted to several other tipsters.

This web series is not a slick, cable channel production. But it has decent video quality, it's clearly not an amateur production done with a cell phone camera. And the episodes are nicely edited. You won't mistake it for an E! reality series, but the producers of the show would like it to be. They're trying to drum up interest in taking their Youtube videos to the next level. To that end they have a Facebook page dedicated to the show, although it numbers less than 100 likes at this point. Their Twitter account has drawn more interest.

I watched the first episode a while ago, and made time this past week to watch the rest of the series. I wouldn't call it a "must see" series, but there are things the Vegas fanatic will enjoy when watching it, and things that left me disappointed.

As I noted, it's not the most polished of productions, but you don't feel like you're watching amateur video on Youtube. I watched several episodes on my Kindle while spending a night in the hospital recently. I watched the rest on my 50-inch TV using the Youtube channel on my Roku. The video quality is good, and that's important. Watching crappy video is a tough sell to a casual viewer.

The characters are interesting enough to warrant profiling. None of them amazed me, but they're interesting to watch, at least in the small does provided. I'm not sure how well their lives would translate to a cable channel series, but there's some potential, and there are other tipsters out there waiting to be plucked from obscurity and most certainly compelling enough to keep viewers coming back. (There have been documentary movies about tipsters, such as "Buskers; For Love or Money," and "Confessions of a Superhero," both of which I've seen, and enjoyed.)

The tipsters talk about the ups and downs of their business. Some days they make great money, some days they don't. They don't talk a lot about how much they make, which makes some sense. If I were being profiled about working for tips, and presumably not reporting the income derived, I'd not want to talk a lot about how much I make. There is a bonus video that I have yet to see, in which they allegedly talk about their incomes. I'll be watching that one when I'm done with this.

There are several things that left me disappointed, or wanting more, depending upon how you look at it.

Steeler Nation is more of a performance artist than the other tipsters. Cupid works the crowd quite a bit, and it seems to benefit him. Steeler Nation's character is all about working the crowd. He wears a Pittsburgh Steeler uniform and pushes a mop on the pavement along the strip. He frequently takes the mop and uses it to wipe the pavement with a jersey representing another team. And he'll engage folks in banter about their favorite team. What is unclear to me is how he makes money. I don't recall seeing him receive a tip, as people don't seem to stop for a picture with him, they only seem to stop to gripe about his using a jersey representing their favorite team as his mop. His schtick gets people to stop, but I didn't see how insulting the fans of 31 other NFL teams makes him a lot of money.

There are episodes that show the challenges of being a tipster. During filming of the series they were being hassled about where they stood on Fremont Street in relation to the entrances of the casinos. And the debate about freedom of speech and their right to be on Fremont Street is touched upon. But many of the challenges of being a tipster, practical ones, are not addressed, at least not fully.

The tipsters will talk about working long days, sometimes in the summer heat, to make money. These people have to eat, have to drink and have to pee, just like the tourists. Do they stop for an hour to duck into a casino cafe for a bite to eat? Are the casinos chasing them off their properties if they want to come in and use the restroom? I got the impression that the casinos aren't too friendly to the tipsters, so what do the tipsters do when nature calls?

I imagine it's easy for Cupid to quickly duck into and out of a restroom. But some of those folks are wearing cumbersome costumes. What do you do if you're working as a Transformer in downtown Las Vegas and need to shed the costume to answer the call of nature?

It's gotta be awfully tough to work long hours on a summer evening in Vegas. What are the practical challenges to doing so?

I've seen cell phone videos on Youtube and walked past an argument or two between tipsters, as they get pissy about their territory being infringed upon by a competitor. This probably goes on regularly. There's got to be some territorial pissing that goes on amongst the tipsters, so what happens when a new Superman or Spider-Man arrives on the scene? How easy is it for a rookie to infringe upon the real estate that so many are already laying claim to?

More than a few times you'll see shots of Cupid working on Fremont Street, and standing near him is a guy holding a sign, asking for donations to help take care of his 13-month-old child. If you've walked Fremont the past few years you'll have encountered plenty of people who are asking for donations, claiming to be homeless and/or military veterans. Some of them are probably making false claims to gain sympathy, but I'm sure some of them are legitimately homeless and down on their luck. They wouldn't stand out there with the tipsters if they weren't benefactors of generosity from the tourists, but how do they feel about having to stand begging for a dollar or two while competing for those dollars against cartoon characters, celebrity impersonators and sexy showgirls? Are they bitter when they see a tipster raking in tips in exchange for photos while they're passed by, hoping for a few dollars of generosity?

Perhaps my questions weren't of interest to the producers, or perhaps they're questions that the producers skipped, hoping to answer another day, should they find the time and financial reward they're seeking. You can't burn through all your ideas in one batch of Youtube videos, no doubt. So perhaps the best is yet to come, should there be another chapter.

Despite the mediocre theme song that you're subjected to during just about every video they produce, there's plenty to entertain the Vegas enthusiast, and it doesn't require a major commitment. The final minute or so of each episode – except for the final episode – has closing credits and an "in the next episode" feature that's worth skipping. So you can burn through the 14 episodes much quicker than a season of "Orange is the New Black."

I may not be sold on the viability of this web series as a major cable channel reality show, but it's clear that there was a lot of time put into this project without the benefit of a corporate bankroll. I may not be its biggest fan, but I was entertained enough to want to see what the producers could do next. I hope I get the chance.

Vegas, conquered

Twelve hours ago I was playing pinball in Las Vegas.

I have returned from six nights in Sin City, and here are a few hightlights:

Sunday evening:

• An hour or so during the final night of the Riviera

Monday: 

• More than two hours at the Riviera as they closed the doors 

• A Mariachi el Bronx concert at Brooklyn Bowl

• A ride on the High Roller

Tuesday:

• Dinner at the Prime Rib Loft in the Orleans

Wednesday: 

• A cameo in Primm

Thursday: 

• Dinner at Marrakech 

Friday:

• Container Park

• A whole lot of Fremont Street

Saturday:

• Pinball Hall of Fame

• Traditional "last supper" at In-N-Out Burger

The trip included a couple of afternoons at the Orleans pool. It was supposed to include pool time every afternoon, but the weather didn't quite cooperate. 

I will elaborate on some, if not all, of the aforementioned highlights in the blogs to come. And I will also explain how I managed to hit all three of my $25 match plays and three $10 match plays, thanks to my good luck charm.

And if you've seen the Twitter feed, @vegasinsight, you've seen pics from the final hours of the Riv. Some day I'll find a way to share some of those via my blog, as well as through a separate website.