The tantalizing talent that was Joe Chavira

As a kid, I loved the NBC show "Unsolved Mysteries." 

If featured great stories that often left you with plenty of questions and an opportunity to draw your own conclusions about what happened, and how. 

I still love a good mystery, and there's an intriguing one that floated through Vegas this past winter. It's a story that didn't gain a lot of media attention and scrutiny at the time, and will likely be lost in the annals of Vegas history. But damn, it's a spectacular tale that left me with plenty of questions I cannot answer. Where's Robert Stack when I need him?

Last November I was introduced to a bizarre celebrity who had a colorful, and questionable, history. (To be fair, his celebrity status is debatable, as well.) 

He wasn't a longtime Vegas entertainer who toiled in casino lounges and turned up in variety shows up and down the strip during the glory days of Vegas. He was a longtime entertainer, allegedly, but relatively new to the Vegas scene. Yet somehow last December he was scheduled to receive a star on the Vegas version of a walk of fame. It's a thing, I feel like it's not well known, and its history seems to be as sketchy and ridiculous as the well-established version in Hollywood. (The most important criteria for both seems to be somebody's willingness to pay the inclusion fee for the celebrity being honored with a star.) 

I learned about this multi-talented sensation by reading two articles from Vegas 411. I've linked to them before, and I will do so again. Writer Sam Novak did a great job of collecting info about this new Vegas legend who had burst onto the scene and was already lined up to receive a star along the Las Vegas Boulevard sidewalk. 

Read about the legendary Joe Chavira here: Part one

And here: Part two

I won't rehash everything Sam wrote, but I will sum it up for those in a hurry. Joe was a legend in his own mind. 

He could play the guitar and piano. And the drums, too. He has had all kinds of odd success, allegedly, in his life. He was a stand out high school athlete, a military serviceman and allegedly created a cartoon character that was published in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, among others. He was a child prodigy when it came to music, and he somehow befriended Trini Lopez, a singer and actor who was most notable during the 1960s and 1970s.

Joe was a songwriter who performed regularly, or so we were told. He had big plans to promote his brand, whatever that was, upon his arrival in Vegas and he was good at dropping names of prominent people. 

And Joe seemed to be in the good graces of a widow who may have been financing his bizarre ascension to Vegas sidewalk royalty. 

Joe Chavira was a stage name, and it appears he chose a name that has a thin connection to Vegas history. How convenient. 

Sam is well plugged into the Vegas entertainment scene, and  received a lot of feedback in response to his articles about Joe's well-deserved honor. He also received comments suggesting that Joe's history was a little less than honorable, including a suggestion that Joe may have taken financial advantage of his friendship/working relationship with Trini Lopez. It's all in Sam's articles. If you didn't read them, you're missing out on great stuff. 

Joe got his star on Dec. 7, it appears. There was talk of a protest by real Vegas entertainers, but I don't think that happened. Joe has a very public Facebook page, and why shouldn't he? He's beloved and a Vegas treasure. The following photo is courtesy of that page: 

Weeks of toiling in the Las Vegas entertainment industry paid off for "Joe."

Sam stopped chronicling Joe's story prior to that memorable day in Vegas history. As he noted in his second article, ol' Joe had legal muscle that was trying to pressure Sam into removing his reporting from the Vegas 411 site. That legal muscle has failed to this point. It's almost as if facts, the truth and fair comment and criticism are difficult to suppress. 

But I was hooked. Who was this guy who had an odd history and lackluster music on YouTube? Sam embedded YouTube videos featuring Joe's music in his articles, including "Tantalize." I'm not a music critic, and I'm not a musician. In my uneducated opinion, it ain't good. But the video and production of it are on par with the music, that's for sure. 

After a December social media break to accept his prestigious award, Joe started celebrating his hard-earned Vegas star a few weeks after the fact with multiple Facebook posts. And he teased that he'd be appearing on the cover of My Vegas Magazine. He was very proud of this achievement. And why not? 

Joe, never one to shy away from dropping names or boasting about his incredible accomplishments, was not ashamed to tout that he was good friends with the publisher of My Vegas Magazine, and would be on its cover. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. 

And sure enough, he did make the cover of the magazine earlier this year, based upon pictures from the My Vegas Magazine Facebook page. (They do a real lousy job of putting a month, date or issue number on any issue the produce. And by lousy, I mean they don't appear to do it at all.)

My Vegas Magazine strikes me as a promotional vehicle that might produce copies with multiple covers. While it's hard to say definitively, photos on its Facebook page certainly suggest that's the case. They have a website, of course, and you can download PDF copies of the magazine. That's what I did, as I wanted to read the magazine's article celebrating the golden boy of Vegas entertainment. 

I'll get to that article in a moment. What I noticed first was that Joe wasn't on the cover of the PDF version of the magazine I downloaded. That only affirmed my belief that the magazine produces multiple covers for each issue. 

I eventually realized that I wasn't looking at several back issues that were available to download, I was looking at several covers for the same issue. Had I looked at the webpage for downloading the current issue, all confusion would have been cleared up immediately, as the page spells it out nicely: "CHECK OUT ALL OUR AMAZING COVER CLIENTS BELOW!"

"Cover clients," you say. Thank you, My Vegas Magazine, for removing all doubt.

As I looked through the magazine index, I didn't see a reference to Joe's story. Wouldn't a cover client be highlighted in the index? 

As I flipped through my virtual copy of the magazine I noted several things. There were a ton of contributing writers and photographers listed, but only one full-time employee for editorial or advertising, and that was a director of photography. That seemed rather odd. 

No editor, no ad director, no staff writers, no account executives. The only other "employee" I could identify was the publisher, who has a column at the beginning of each undated issue. 

The mag had sections about doctors, real estate agents, fitness, legal resources and restaurants. It was hard to determine what was an ad and what was supposed to be an article. Some pages of text had a writer listed. Others didn't. And the photos looked like publicity shots provided by the subject.

You want to talk about blurring the lines between reporting and advertising, My Vegas Magazine does a great job of it.

I finally got to the entertainment section, and there, on page 154, is our cover boy. The new star of Vegas. 

I read the article, and it read like a poorly written biography that Joe would have put together himself, featuring plenty of stunning accomplishments and incredible twists of fate. Joe was a survivor, fighter and champion who succeeded at everything he did, according to the one-page article with no writer's credit. 

Here is a screen capture of the first paragraph of his story.

Yes, that's the first two sentences of an "article" in a "magazine."

Yeah, it's that poorly written. And lacks editing. And the whole article is that way. It's not professional work, to state the obvious. 

If you haven't figured it out by now, My Vegas Magazine is not a news magazine. It's just a fancy advertising vehicle disguised as a magazine. Is there content in there that's not paid for? Perhaps, but the line between paid advertisement and actual journalistic effort does not exist. I see no evidence that the magazine attempts to denote what is paid content and what isn't. Perhaps there's no denotation necessary. Hard to know, but the articles look like text heavy ads in most instances. At least in the issue I reviewed. I didn't bother to seek journalism in any other edition. 

Are you shocked to find out Joe was profiled by this prestigious magazine? Probably not. 

But damn, Joe was mighty, mighty proud to be on the cover of this magazine. That strikes me as rather sad and pathetic when I realize what this magazine is, and more importantly, what it isn't. 

Hell, I could be on the cover of it, at least for a couple dozen copies, if I want to fork over the dough to have my seldom-used blog site highlighted as the most important voice in Vegas tourism. (I'm trademarking that phrase.) 

Recently I was reading comments on some of Joe's Facebook posts, and some of his acquaintances wanted to know where to find his My Vegas Magazine profile online. As people discussed Joe's big splash in the mag, a few people shared interesting tidbits about the mag. 

I don't need Robert Stack to solve this mystery for me. 

But there is an unsolved mystery in all of this: Who paid for Joe's big splash in My Vegas Magazine? 

I didn't see a lot of Facebook posts by Joe suggesting he was gigging around town, actually getting paid to perform for his many fans and eager tourists. How does a Vegas star make money if he's not performing night after night?

I have no idea how much Joe was earning on a daily basis selling his mediocre music or licensing his talent to film or television, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he wasn't cashing many checks. (He claimed in an odd video interview that he had written music for one film and intended to do more of that, as well as get into acting.)

Joe's media blitz was likely funded by the same benefactor that funded his well-deserved Vegas star. I've seen no confirmation of that, but I'm at a loss to come up with a better explanation. 

Joe is an enigma. He was welcomed personally to Vegas by none other than the mayor, Carolyn Goodman, in a video Joe is proud to share on his YouTube page. His YouTube page has very few subscribers, but lots of self-promotion mixed in with an occasional song you'll likely never listen to twice. 

And he has plenty of pictures of himself with folks who are important, or at least give off the impression they are, on his Facebook page. 

And then there's his poorly maintained website that offers an outdated fan club package with a 2019 calendar. 

But a lot of people think he's swell. Really.

How do I know? Joe died March 19 at the age of 64. There's a web page dedicated to his memory, although it conveniently says little about him. Yet there are plenty of people who posted testimonies to what a great guy he was. You can find similar comments on the last post to his Facebook page. 

The guy seemed like a character from a low-budget '80s flick that went straight to VHS. Everything about Joe Chavira is so preposterous that you'd swear he is a thing of fiction. Like a good pro wrestler who sells his character both in the ring and everywhere he goes outside the ring, Joe's career seemed to be a work. 

What's real, what's fiction and who did Joe manipulate to achieve all his success and fame? Those are great questions I cannot answer. I wish Robert Stack was here to help me solve the mystery. 

Worth my time: Awakening, 1961 Vegas and Elko and Primm, again

There were a few things I've read/watched the past few weeks that have stuck with me. I won't say all of it is stuff you can't overlook, but it was memorable for me for one reason or another. 

I'll start with a detailed synopsis of “Awakening,” a stage show at Wynn. It comes from Sam Novak at Vegas 411, who consumes a wide array of live entertainment, and was fond of the previous Wynn extravaganza, “Le Rêve – The Dream.” I saw Le Rêve five or six years ago, and it was an outstanding spectacle. I get that few things last forever, and stage entertainment is more difficult than ever, but creating anything that lives up to the reputation Le Rêve earned is an uphill battle. 

Sam may be a bit biased when it comes to his beloved Le Rêve, but he'd be shouting at the mountain tops if Awakening came close to providing the same entertainment value. He paints a vivid picture of what unfolded during his ingestion of Le Rêve, and it ain't pretty. The show has already been retooled because it has had a tepid response, and I'm confident Sam isn't the only one who walked away more than slightly disappointed. 

If you have zero interest in a live stage show where tickets are upwards of $100, you'll still find Sam's critique worth your time. 

Old video footage of Vegas finds its way to the social media outlets periodically. Often it's in the form of an individual's home movie camera, which was centuries behind the audio and video quality of today's cell phones. It's amazing how much great video footage, and far more mediocre video footage, of Vegas is available today. 

I have no idea if this video was a new discovery, or the recycling of something that has floated around Twitter for years. But I enjoyed this simple, 45-second look at Fremont Street from more than 60 years ago. 

1961 Vegas

I will close with a couple of videos I enjoyed. Your mileage may vary. 

As I noted a few weeks ago, content associated with prostitution and brothels usually does well. 

I had watched Bobby G's video touring through the northern Nevada metropolis known as Elko, which has its share of brothels. It was a simple, entertaining tour of Nevada life far away from Las Vegas. 

Bobby G and his wife revisited Elko recently, this time as guests of a brothel. A look inside the brothel surprised me a bit. I've seen brothel video before, so I was far from amazed. But I was impressed. I didn't expect the Desert Rose to have as many amenities as it does. I didn't expect it to be a dump, but it was fancier than I would have guessed. 

Is it the most exciting 22 minutes you'll spend this week? No, but if you are curious to see what life is like inside a brothel that isn't an hour away from Vegas, this video will scratch that itch nicely. That's a metaphor I probably shouldn't use when writing about brothels. 

And finally, here's another look inside Buffalo Bill's Resort and Casino, the Primm casino that reopened earlier this year. 

Vegas Confessions Podcast host Julian Romero cranks out a lot of content, both audio and video, about Vegas. Like most content creators, not all of it speaks to me, but it doesn't have to. I can't watch it all. And perhaps that's the key to a successful YouTube channel, providing a variety of content for those who want to see food reviews and guys like me who don't. 

Some of what I heard and saw in Julian's video is comparable to what I saw from a Miles to Memories video I recommend a few weeks ago. But Julian brings plenty of new information in his modest 8-minute video. If you've ever been curious about those California border casinos, this video is worth your time. 

Worth my time: Las Vegas transplants

I didn't spend a lot of time reading a lot of fascinating Vegas stories this past week. There are a couple of things I have wanted to check out, but never got to them. 

One thing that stood out was this article I stumbled upon via Yahoo. This article isn't really stunning, but it speaks to a common phenomena. People who work in fancy, expensive tourist destinations may have a hard time living where they work. Not exactly shocking, I know. 

It's easy to work in the Beverly Hills service industry and commute to and from your job, although I have it on good authority it's not exactly cheap to live in Burbank. 

If you live in Hawaii, however, it's not so easy to commute to work from a modest suburb, for obvious reasons. This article notes that folks, particularly descendants of Hawaiian natives who don't have extraordinary wealth, flee to the contiguous 48 for its more reasonable cost of living. And the most popular place they choose to congregate? Yep, Las Vegas. 

There is a bit of irony in this phenomena. The wealthiest of tourists tend to flock to Las Vegas Strip properties. Yet the fancy houses and high-end real estate isn't found in the shadows of Caesars Palace. 

From my experience, you can live in modest, and in some cases less than modest, housing a few blocks off the Vegas strip, as there's not a lot of high end real estate, other than maybe high-rise condos, to be found around the strip, not that I know of anyway. 

My buddy lives in a nice apartment complex south of the Tropicana. He can walk to the south Strip casinos, or the Pinball Hall of Fame, without a lot of effort, if it's not 110F when he does it. Yeah, it takes more than five minutes, but it's quite walkable in the evening. I've been to his apartment, and took a picture of the strip from his apartment balcony. It's a quiet area, if you don't mind noise from the nearby airport. I didn't notice airport noise while inside his apartment one November evening. But I imagine he deals with it. 

If I moved to Vegas, I'm not sure where I'd want to live, but you could do a lot worse than my buddy's apartment complex. 

If I lived in Vegas, perhaps I'd live this close to the Luxor, and the abandoned Skyvue wheel poles, as seen on the left side of this photo.

Worth my time: Chris Hansen, Primm, Elvis' private jet

Lots of good stuff out there this week in the world of Vegas reporting and conversation, and I found a few things that have stuck with me. 

Let's start with the Jeff Does Vegas podcast interview with Chris Hansen. 

Hansen is not quite on par with Tom Brokaw, but his name is well known. During his years at NBC, he was part of several undercover investigations dubbed "To Catch a Predator." If you don't know: Adults seeking minors for sexual liaisons are busted in undercover law enforcement stings, which are recorded for broadcast to the masses.

There are clips from these stings all over YouTube. It's crime porn, almost literally. It's hard not to watch, and at times it's amusing because both the perps and Chris Hansen say things that aren't one-liners, but are funny. If you've seen it, ever, you know what I mean.

The point of the investigation, however, is anything but funny. Hansen's career seems to have become dedicated to busting the predators. After NBC cashed in on the concept, both at the mothership and via its cable outlets, Hansen has carried on the crusade, churning out new content for either a cable channel, a streaming app or both. I'm not sure on that part. But he's out there, proving that as the platforms evolve, the predators are still looking for victims nearly two decades after the predator stings began. (Not a surprise.)

All that said, Hansen is cashing in on his work catching predators through a behind-the-scenes presentation. In Vegas. 

It seems odd to me that a showroom that exists primarily for comedy and musical entertainment is going to host ticketed presentations about baiting and trapping online predators, but that's the opportunity South Point Casino is offering you next month. I won't explain how and why my favorite Vegas podcast would up interviewing Hansen, but the host will if you listen to this discussion of both Hansen's career and his encounters with online predators. Great discussion, Jeff. 

Jeff Does Vegas interview with Chris Hansen

As I have noted, I don't follow any Vegas YouTube channels closely. To my surprise, I was unfamiliar with Miles to Memories. YouTube recommended one of their recent videos, showcasing the sadness that is Primm, Nevada. 

I've been to Primm. Once. Probably in 2018. On a weeknight in September, I believe. Not much was happening, as you would expect. 

I get why Laughlin works. It's on the Arizona border and it's 100 miles closer to Arizona residents than Las Vegas. You want a night of casino action, or cocktails served with prune juice instead of orange juice: You go to Laughlin. It saves you at least three hours of travel time, valuable time if you're not making it a weekend getaway. 

If you're coming from California, I can appreciate why Primm made sense for a weekend, at least back in its day. Between the three casinos and the outlet mall, it was a cheaper alternative to Vegas if your primary interest was casino action, and you didn't need all the eye candy a night in Vegas offers.

Whatever the reason, Primm made sense to a lot of folks in decades past. Now it's a sad relic full of testaments to the greatness that once was, and Miles to Memories does a great job of capturing a lot of that in a video that is well edited and narrated. 

Too many "content creators" think they're doing great work by walking around a casino floor for minutes at a time, pointing out the obvious and chatting about some random memory. There's an audience for that, I guess, but I'm not that audience. Miles to Memories, at least for me, produces quality content that's rarely matched in the bowels of YouTube. 

Like the channels I do follow on YouTube, I won't watch every video, but I will be sampling more Miles to Memories content in the weeks to come. They have another recent video from Primm that I have yet to watch, so I'll start with that. Based upon what I've seen in my introduction to their videos, I'll be checking out their content with some frequency. 

The following story was not the most amazing thing I have ever read, but it was an entertaining little story from something called Robb Report. I am not familiar with it, but a wealthy Canadian podcaster certainly is, so I'll assume if he is reading Robb Report, it's a credible source.

The host of the Jeff Does Vegas podcast recommends a lot of great articles I'd never find since I don't scour the internet for Vegas news on a regular basis. This nugget he unearthed is the story about an airplane that Elvis Presley purchased late in his life. (It couldn't have been his first, could it?) So what happened to it after his death? Here's the answer: 

Elvis Presley's private jet

And finally, I'll note two stories from the Vital Vegas blog that were memorable for one reason or another. 

I'm probably not the only person who finds the saga of the long-delayed Fontainebleau casino/resort to be entertaining. I was certain the structure would be torn down rather than completed. Yet here we are, promised the latter. 

A blog post this past week shared photos of construction progress toward completing the tower more than 15 years after it began. The photos do not come from Vital Vegas author Scott Roeben, but they were shared with him for use in his blog, and it was mildly interesting to see what's happening right now.

Exclusive: Photos Inside Fontainebleau Reveal Construction Progress

And finally, in-depth coverage of a "food hall," as the marketers like to say, isn't fascinating, but an overview of the new fast food dining options downtown at the Fremont casino pointed out something that greatly surprised me. 

I can't name every restaurant in every downtown casino, but I have a pretty good idea of what's available, for the most part. With the opening of a food hall at the Fremont, it's Second Street Grill appears to have closed permanently. This grill was essentially the 24-hour cafe of the casino, as best I can tell. I had no clue it existed. I was slightly stunned to learn it was a thing. 

Fremont Food Hall Opens, Second Street Grill Closes Permanently

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!  

#VegasHalloween 2021 -- day 3, part 2

Halloween 2021 was not what I expected. 

It was my seventh #VegasHalloween in 11 years, and my plan, typically, is to spend the evening downtown. 

In 2019 my life partner really wanted to see Lady Gaga on Halloween Night. She didn't want to pay $400 per ticket, and that was lowest priced ticket days before the show, if you were shopping the online ticket resale sites. 

Fearing a major overhaul was in the works at the dirty circus, we stopped at Circus Circus the day before  Halloween, in the middle of the afternoon. I hadn't seen the inside of that joint in years, and wanted to see it in its vintage glory, in case the recent sale of the property was soon to bring a whitewashing of the décor. 

Nobody heaps praise on Circus Circus. It's old, it's kitschy and it's not the least bit glamourous. But so many of us bemoan the loss of casino theming, it would be a shame to ever lose this Vegas relic.

A view from outside the dirty circus on Oct. 30, 2019. This view is going to change, one of these years. Allegedly change is coming in two years. Yeah, we'll see.

While walking around, we found a ticket booth selling show tickets. I knew it was a waste of time to price check what they had, but my life partner insisted. Much to our shock, we found tickets at approximately $135 each. I had been watching ticket prices drop a little bit from day to day, but nobody was dumping them that cheap a full day before showtime. Sure, they were near the top of the theater, which ain't great, but I've seen much worse seats. It's not the hockey arena we were visiting, after all. It was a ticket in, and we had no regrets. 

My 2019 cellphone wasn't going to get a good pic of the Lady on stage, or flying through the air of a dark theater, but I got a pic of the giant video display showcasing her piano prowess during my Halloween 2019 concert. My first Gaga concert, and probably the last. I'm cheap. 

Flash forward two years, and the three sisters are talking about going to Lady Gaga on Oct. 30. We saw the "Enigma" show, a corny production with a simple story that unfolds as Gaga performs the hits. Last month, she was doing the jazz and piano show she likes to do, and the sisters wanted to see it. I didn't need to go. Count me out. 

They didn't go to the show on Saturday, Oct. 30, because midway through the week the bride-to-be decided she wanted to have a dinner gathering for the 18 of us there in Vegas for the wedding. That killed any plans for the sisters to see Gaga. 

Given there was no formal group gathering happening on Halloween night, the sisters started talking about going to see Gaga that Sunday night. I learned about this on Sunday afternoon, after the wedding, while we were dining at Saltgrass. 

Somewhere in the discussion it went from a party of 3 to 4. The bride's father's sister became part of the plan. (She's not an aunt to the sisters, who are cousins to the bride. Let's leave it at that.) 

So after changing clothes at the Plaza, I headed downstairs, knowing that I'd eventually be hitting the road and dropping off a group of concertgoers at Park MGM. It was just before kickoff of  the NFL's Sunday night football game, and a World Series game 5. I wanted to place small wagers on each. I wanted to wager on the Atlanta Braves to win, and I wanted to wager on Dallas to beat Minnesota. 

I got there in the final seconds of the wagering for baseball, and as I was about to place a wager, it went off the board. Oops. So then I wagered on the NFL game. I wagered $25 on the visiting Dallas Cowboys. 

The moment I put my wallet in my pocket and turned around to head out of the sports book I heard the NFL pregame announcement. The Dallas starting quarterback was not playing, and a backup with no experience was starting the game. Dallas was a 5-point underdog, but suddenly this looked like an easy victory for Minnesota. Just my luck. 

At Circa I watched part of the game in the free seats in the sports book with the bride and groom, while other family members milled about at the Mega Bar. (It's a big bar in a huge casino. I don't know why that's so amazing.) As 7 p.m. approached, it was time to head to the concert. 

We drove over to Caesars Palace to pick up the bride's aunt, which I thought would be a nightmare, but we got lucky. Weaving in and out of Caesars entryway is a chore right now, thanks to construction, but we succeeded. Getting into the Park MGM area to drop off the foursome wasn't much of a challenge either. So far, so good. 

By the way, they had slightly better seats in the balcony than we had two years ago, and the tickets cost them about $180 each that afternoon via whichever ticket site they used. 

My options: Go back downtown, only to head back three hours later to pick them up, or find somewhere else to go. For those who think that they should have taken a cab back after the show, the sisters were splitting the rental fee for the SUV between them. All it cost me was gas money and my driving service when needed during the weekend. Fair trade in my world. And even without the fair trade, you put others before yourself sometimes. This was one of those times. 

Given every trip to Vegas for more than a decade has included a visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame, and I hadn't been there on this trip, and was resigned to the idea I wasn't going for the first time in many years, Lady Gaga gave me a convenient excuse to drop in. I had been to the latest incarnation on the south end of the strip in June, twice, so I knew what I was getting. It was a quick jaunt on the backroads to loop around Mandalay Bay and pull into the lot. 

I had a nice chat with a local couple, who had to be in their 70s. They were just getting in their car, and I said hello. We talked for five minutes. There they were, on Halloween night, getting out and enjoying pinball together in Vegas. Warmed my heart. 

Inside it was not very busy. It was Halloween night, plenty of people had other plans. I saw proprietor Tim Arnold walking around, something that's not uncommon. I've talked to him before, but he doesn't know me enough to remember me. But I said hello and asked how late he was open. He said that he's still maintaining reduced hours as a result of the pandemic, so he was closing at 9 p.m.

That gave me an hour to look around, see what I didn't recognize, play a few old favorites and head for the door. The first game I played was Theatre of Magic, a game I don't to play regularly back in Minnesota, mostly because I don't go to a lot of places to play pinball on a regular basis these days. I won three free games on top of the game I paid 75 cents to play, and chewed up a bunch of time on that machine alone. 

I played this machine first.

By the time an hour had passed, I had spent less than $3, and played plenty of pinball for that money. Almost criminal. My final game of the night, an Elvira-themed machine, is one of three Elvira machines that has been licensed over the decades. This one was the second game to feature Cassandra, and was manufactured in 1996.

I played this last. Seemed like an appropriate final game on Halloween. (Cell phone photography of pinball machines is not my strong suit.)

So it's 9 p.m. on Halloween, and I'm back in the parking lot. Where do I go from there? I contemplated the Orleans, a place I have stayed many times and typically visit when I don't stay there. Instead I chose to go check out a locals bar I read about, courtesy of one of the local TV stations, The Sand Dollar, a "lounge" along Spring Mountain Road. 

I'm not sure the Halloween makeover of a longtime bar warranted news coverage by one of the TV stations, but that's how I learned about it. I had considered stopping in on Friday afternoon for one drink, but was too tired and not in the mood. 

So there I was, shortly after 9 p.m., heading into the bar. I didn't plan an elaborate Halloween costume this year, but I had this cheesy manufactured costume I bought a few years ago. Basically you wear it over your normal clothing and you're supposed to look like you're at the podium, bidding on a The Price is Right showcase. It was a perfect, simple costume for a theme party a few years ago, and it was a simple, easy way to play along with Halloween without going to a lot of effort. I had no idea how grateful I was going to be for not planning an elaborate costume this year. 

Thank you, Amazon, for providing this stock image of my costume. The microphone looks more phallic than the picture suggests. People will remind you of that.

I threw on the costume and headed inside. The place was not packed, but there was a decent crowd assembled, most donning some sort of costume. This place ain't fancy, and it's a venue for live music. I knew that much going in. 

The entire place was decorated, but I wouldn't call it amazing. They had plenty of fake cobwebs across the ceiling, and lots of little decorative touches through the bar. Cute, but not jaw dropping. I wouldn't recommend going there just to see the Halloween makeover. I took a simple picture of the pool table area when nobody was in that corner, and a picture of the decorated entryway to the place. I didn't want to look like a tourist, taking pics of every decorative accent in the building, and it wasn't that amazing, anyway.

Again, cell phone limitations in play. But you get the idea. 

The nifty entryway into The Sand Dollar.

These were the only Sand Dollar patrons in costume I took a picture of. Somebody else had asked them to pose for a picture first. That was my cue to follow suit. 

The bar had Halloween-themed cocktails, but I ordered a simple cocktail to start. A band was warming up, so I was optimistic the music would start any minute. I wasn't in the mood to try to make chit chat with anyone, so I was content to stand and enjoy the music. I found spot to stand that wasn't in anyone's way, and waited seemingly forever for the music to start. Turns out the band didn't play until 10 p.m.

So the music finally starts playing. I figure the band is going to play cover tunes, and given it was Halloween, there would be something, anything, referencing the fact it was Oct. 31. 

My expectations were a little low. The six-piece band began with an instrumental tune. And after several minutes, they were still going strong. After 25 minutes it sounded like their opening jam was about to end. And then it picked back up again, and continued until 10:50, at which point they ended the jam and took a break. 

It was quite a surprise, and very entertaining. Not what I was expecting, but very enjoyable. There was no introduction or sign telling me what band it was, but my after-the-fact research tells me it was Überschall, an improv band that is composed of past and present musicians performing for the Blue Man Group, evidently. 

The Sand Dollar's Halloween decor wasn't worth the price of admission, (there was none,) but if you enjoy an improv band featuring three drummers, two guitars and a keyboard player, you'd be entertained by Überschall. They play at the Double Down Saloon periodically, it appears.

Lady Gaga's show lasts about 2-1/2 hours, I was told, and I assumed she wouldn't start at 8 p.m. sharp, so I expected to be getting a "show's over" text by 11 p.m.

What I didn't expect was to run into somebody I know at the Sand Dollar. 

Toward the end of the Überschall set, a guy approached the area where I was standing. He looked familiar to me, based upon his profile. But it's dark, there's music playing and I assumed there was no chance I knew this guy. A few minutes later the music ends, the guy turns around to head to another area of the bar, and looks at me, as if he recognizes me. 

My general rule: When you see somebody you don't immediately recognize, but are so sure it's somebody you know and haven't seen in a long time, you're probably right. 

I texted my friend Sam, who is a well-known scribe in Vegas, asking where he was at the moment, and if it was a lounge. I received a generic "LOL" reply, and I wondered if that was his way of telling me he was doing something far more interesting on Halloween night. Sure enough, that was Sam, and seconds later he walked up to me, asking why I what I was doing at the lounge. 

Sam knows I'm a tourist, and we first met in 2015. I have read his work for years, and enjoy much of what he writes. When I was in town this past summer, I interviewed him for an episode of my non-Vegas podcast. It was the second time we had met in six years. And I certainly didn't expect that Friday afternoon we'd cross paths again, if only for a few minutes, barely four months later. 

Sam was simply out and about that night, hitting up a few spots specifically because it was Halloween. He was soon on his way, and I took that as my cue to ready myself for the return trip to Park MGM. 

Sam is on the left, the decaying writer of this blog is on the right.

The return trip was quick and easy, the pick up was no challenge, and we dumped the aunt off on the Flamingo Road sidewalk alongside Caesars rather than drive her into the property. I offered to pull into that side entrance area on Flamingo that accesses one of the towers, but she wanted to walk around to the front of the property, so she did. And off we went to downtown. 

I dropped the sisters off at Golden Nugget and parked our rental vehicle at the Plaza. 

I grabbed my costume and headed out to Fremont Street moments before midnight in order to gaze at the spectacle that is Halloween in Vegas. Before I ever made it out of the Plaza, I ran into the Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. I have a special place in my heart for the Macho Man, as he was my costume inspiration in 2016. 

You can find these folks on YouTube, I would later learn. 

I didn't request too many specific photos on Fremont Street. I'd often take pics of folks posing for somebody else, and sometimes that included a random person in the picture. And while I don't avoid pics of the scantily clad women parading about on Halloween, they're usually not my priority. Here's a sample of what I found after midnight. 

I did not tip this street performer for this picture. Shame on me. His balancing act was quite impressive. And yes, he picks up that bottle and uses it as part of his act. 

 

My second Macho Man of the night. I saw one more, but never at a good time to stop him and get a picture. Oh well.

These clowns were creepy, and garnered plenty of attention.

I didn't immediately realize the entire cast of Gilligan's Island was represented by this group. Once I realized they had all seven castaways, I waited nearby until somebody else asked them to gather together for a group photo. Then I grabbed mine. 

A simple costume idea. It would have played well five years ago. It still gets laughs, although Hillary Clinton never went to prison, but plenty of Trump bobos have. 

I asked this guy for his photo. His dedication to a creepy look was outstanding. 

This seemed like a pic worth grabbing at the time.

Bill Cosby's career is forever tarnished, and that likely includes appreciation for the old "Fat Albert" cartoons. Nonetheless, this simple Dumb Donald costume blew me away. I had to ask this guy for a pic.

I ended my evening back at the Plaza, where I bought in for $200 at a table game. It was my one big gamble of the weekend. I didn't win, but I held onto a little and finished my night playing a few bucks through the machines at the bar before going to bed. Another Vegas Halloween, as odd as it was, had come to an end. 

Not drinking much that night and not staying awake until 4 a.m. didn't bother me, I had an afternoon flight home. I typically avoid flying home the day after Halloween, but it made sense to do so for this trip, as my life partner and her sisters were doing so, and this was a bonus trip in my world. Three nights is short by my standards, but I'm so grateful it worked out. 

The final hours in Vegas were uneventful. I checked out of my room, picked up the sisters and drove us to Ellis Island, where we had lunch before heading to the airport. The lunch service was a lot slower than we expected. I'm pretty sure the waitress forgot to put our ticket in for a while, so we waited more than 30 minutes for our food. It didn't appear tables around us were waiting that long. 

I ordered prime rib for lunch given I hadn't had my standard prime rib meal the entire weekend. Fun fact, other than a breakfast bar in my hotel room an hour earlier, I hadn't eaten a meal since Sunday afternoon at Saltgrass. Other than a little candy at the Pinball Hall of Fame, I ate almost nothing until lunch at noon on Monday. That happens to me in Vegas occasionally, and I didn't even think about a meal that entire evening. 

One food pic from my trip, prime rib at Ellis Island. No complaints for less than $20.

I gave myself about two hours to return the rental car and get to my gate for departure. The shuttle buses were slow at the rental center and security screening was super slow on Monday afternoon. A friend who was in town that weekend, but I had not seen, was on the same flight home as I was. She messaged me that it took more than an hour to get through the security screening. I was certain I would miss my flight, but TSA did something to pick up the pace, as the line eventually started moving far more briskly than it had been when I arrived. I was the last ticketed passenger to be seated, and they bumped me up to an exit row. I wasn't the last guy on the plane, there were a few standby passengers hoping and praying they'd get a seat to Minneapolis, as well. I think they did. 

My seventh trip to Vegas for Halloween in 11 years was complete. I wouldn't have been sad had I missed out, at least that was my thought leading up to the trip, but I suspect I'd have regretted not being there come Halloween weekend. 

Oh yeah, those Sunday night sports bets. I missed betting on Atlanta, and Houston went on to win that night, so it would have been my fourth consecutive failed sports bet of the weekend. As for the Minnesota-Dallas NFL game, I regretted betting on Dallas as soon as I walked away from the counter and learned that five-year pro Cooper Rush, who had never started an NFL regular season game in his life, was the Dallas starting quarterback as the Cowboys' regular starting QB, Dak Prescott, was a late scratch. 

I watched some of the first half at Circa and followed the scoring updates on my phone at the Pinball Hall of Fame. It looked like Dallas was going to struggle to score points, but Minnesota failed to light up the scoreboard, as well. Dallas not only covered the 4.5-point spread, but won outright 20-16. I won cash on Sunday night all because I was a minute too late to bet on baseball and because I bet against Minnesota seconds before I learned late breaking info that would have led me to switch my bet. 

When it comes to sports betting, I swear I'm wrong 90% of the time. I need to bet the opposite of my instincts. 

#VegasHalloween 2021 -- day 3, part 1

Halloween, a bittersweet day in my world. 

As a child, Halloween was always an exciting time. Yes, there's a historic, religious origin that gave way to the commercial silliness of today. Be it the promise of candy, the creepiness of the afterlife that dwells in the hallways of haunted attractions across the United States or the convenient excuse for adults to showcase their creativity and be anything other than who they are, Halloween is fun for all ages. If you're into any of those sorts of things. 

I can't explain my attraction to horror, the undead or the creepiness that lurks down a dark corridor of an abandoned building, but as a kid I was drawn to the challenge of bravely navigating the local haunted house during my earliest years living in Small Town, Indiana. There were years in my life when Halloween came and went without much fanfare, but more often than not, partaking in the Halloween festivities became an important part of my fall. And for the past 15 seasons, I have worked in the haunt industry. All but one of those years as an employee of a corporate amusement park's Halloween weekends. That's another story for another blog. 

For the seventh time in 11 years, I spent my Halloween in Las Vegas. I won't recount all of those trips, either, but I will note that my first was in 2011, prior to this blog. 

This year's Halloween trip wasn't a sure thing. Under different circumstances, perhaps I would have skipped Halloween in Vegas this year. I haven't made them all since 2011, obviously. But it was a wedding I was not obligated to attend that prompted my trip to Sin City for Halloween weekend. 

After a late night playing cheap keno and drinking cocktails at the Plaza, I had a hard time rolling out of bed before 9 a.m.

No big deal, I had nowhere to go that morning, but I did want to wager on some early NFL game. I am rarely in town on a Sunday morning, particularly during the football season. After not betting on college football Saturday, I had to have a little action on Sunday morning. Having lost $60 on two UFC fights on Saturday, I wagered a healthy $20 on Sunday morning. Buffalo was hosting Miami, favored by plenty, and by 7.5 or 8 at the half. Figuring Buffalo was going to score a bunch at home, I wagered $20 on Buffalo to cover the first-half spread. 

And the score at halftime was 3-3. 

I don't bet on a lot of sports. And I usually bet something simple, often against the spread. I swear I win less than 20% of the sports wagers I make. I need to pull a George Costanza and bet the opposite of every sports instinct I have. 

Wager placed before kickoff, I ventured out of downtown. I wanted to take a little time and just drive around, seeing the areas tourists never see. Or roll down Boulder Highway on a Sunday morning, before traffic was heavy. Maybe have breakfast at Klondike Sunset. But I was slow to get going, so I had two objectives Sunday morning: Supplement my cash at a non-casino ATM and grab a fast food breakfast, preferably from somewhere I don't have access to back here in Minnesota. 

And where did I end up grabbing breakfast from? McDonald's. At least I knew what I was getting. 

Back to the Plaza, it was time to clean up for the wedding. While I was staying at the Plaza, solo, my life partner and her sisters are getting ready at Golden Nugget, where the wedding party is also staying. 

The wedding party went to the wedding chapel via a limo, I picked up the sisters. I have been going to Vegas for nearly 25 years, but never for a wedding. On Halloween 2021, it was time for my first. 

It's a block or so off Las Vegas Boulevard, and it's a nice place
to get married if you're not getting married at your casino. 

The chapel of choice was The Little Vegas Chapel. No fancy casino chapel for this party. We went to some nifty little building a block or so off Las Vegas Boulevard, a couple of blocks away from Dino's Lounge. 

The wedding couple chose the Elvis wedding. The chapel was a nice little room and Elvis did a nice job of running a wedding ceremony. There were several elements to the ceremony, including a few songs by Elvis. We were invited to dance with the newlyweds during the final song of the ceremony, and thanks to the insistence of a few in our group of 16, including the bride and groom, we all danced during the final song. 

The King doesn't get a lot of love in Vegas these days, but you can count
on him to be performing a wedding somewhere in Vegas on any given day. 

After the ceremony there were a few pictures outside the building, along with those that were taken inside the building prior to the ceremony. I think that was plenty. Most folks want 1,000 pictures from their wedding day, and there's value in having those, but probably not as much as people spend for them. The photo collection the newlyweds amassed seemed to be plenty. 

A pre-wedding photo inside The Little Vegas Chapel.

This must be a classic Cadillac, right? 

Not sure how often these cars hit the streets, or what they're used for, but I suspect they send them when you don't have a wedding party to pick up, and therefore don't need the stretch limo.

Ceremony is over, it's back to the casinos, and vacation mode. 

There were two children in attendance. Young kids, too. Elementary school age. They're the niece and nephew of the bride. So it was kind of important that they be there for their aunt's unorthodox wedding. They were not staying at a casino. Their family was at a timeshare off the strip, down from Ellis Island. 

The problem on Sunday afternoon was finding a place where a group of 12 or 14 people can assemble for food and drink, with two children in tow. With no plan, our destination ended up being Saltgrass, the modest priced steak house at Golden Nugget. 

My overpriced chicken sandwich wasn't anything to go back for, but add a large beer to that, and a good one, not that Bud Light I usually drink, and a bill for about $25, or slightly less, wasn't obscene. The service was efficient, and the staff was quite accommodating to our large group spread out over two giant tables. I'd order something a bit fancier if I dine there again. 

Late afternoon is upon us and it's time to go change clothes, after a stop upstairs. The sisters were discussing their Sunday evening plans, and they had yet to be finalized, so I went up to their room, awaiting their plan. That plan didn't involve me, technically.  

With that Sunday night plan yet to be finalized, it was time for me to head back to the Plaza. No more Sunday church duds for me. It's time for casual clothes prior to some of us reconvening at Circa, where the bride and groom want to watch their Minnesota Vikings take on the Dallas Cowboys. There was no set plan for the remainder of the evening, other than the bride and groom planned to remain downtown and take in the Halloween atmosphere. I planned to do that, too. And eventually I did.