Curtis Myles told the Assembly Transportation Committee that monorail farebox revenues rose last year. The company has revenue available to pay its operating and maintenance costs and debt through 2010, he added.

Myles, however, made no mention of the fact that daily ridership on the monorail in 2006 dropped to 19,219, down 31.7 percent from the normal daily ridership of 28,122 in 2005. The base one-way fare was increased to $5, up from $3, in December 2005.

It does look, however, that the end may actually be in sight. The Review-Journal conducted an interview with A/PH honcho Robert Earl, wherein he says that progress has been slow, but they've invested must more money into the property than originally anticipated. The description of the strip frontage is semi-interesting.

The large desert-stonelike features topped by an Arabian-style dome are being
pulled down to be replaced by a "Times Squarelike" front with large light-emitting
diode screens and bright colors to make the property more inviting.

"By the middle of this year, you'll never know the Aladdin existed," said Earl, adding
that the dome that sat above the Aladdin sign was removed Thursday.

"That 700-foot run all along the front will all glow and change colors and show
images," Earl said of the new plaza. "It will be a fantastic billboard."

The duo has been taping introductions and interstitials (TV talk for transitional scenes) for the past two weeks. The show's longevity has surprised everyone from Showtime officials to the stars themselves, according to executive producer Mark Wolper.
reviewjournal.com — Living - SHOOTING STARS

Local motion: The upcoming Cinemax series "Sin City Diaries" continues production, while editing gets underway on the initial half-hour episodes featuring Amber Smith as a high-roller concierge.

The Broadway hit is slated for a sit-down run in a new theater, part of the tower scheduled to come on line just north of The Venetian sometime in the fall.

The biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won four Tony awards, including best musical. It opened in November 2005 and grosses more than $1.1 million per week.

More Here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-22-Thu-2007/living/12559141.html

"Years in the making! A cast of thousands!"

Teaser for a movie epic?

Or the hype for magician Steve Wyrick's new entertainment complex at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood?

Actually it only seemed liked the $35 million venue was years in the making. It took about 15 months to build.

And the core of its cast is just three performers - Wyrick, singer Martin Nievera and puppeteer Ronn Lucas. Plus, a rotating roster of stand-up comedians will take center stage on Friday nights.

Still, antsy fans were beginning to wonder if it would ever open.

More Here:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/do/2007/feb/21/566630403.html

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Las Vegas offers so many great choices when it comes to dining that the best way to cover all your bases is to try as many restaurants as you can in the smallest time possible. Try these restaurants for a drink, an appetizer or an entire meal. Don’t start counting calories either, live it up and have seven meals in a day. Can you possibly eat at seven restaurants in one day? Try it!

1) Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace Las Vegas

In Las Vegas you have to go to at least one celebrity chef owned restaurant so why not make it the Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. If you fit it in at lunch time you will easily be able to squeeze in another restaurant by 3 in the afternoon. Bobby Flay does some mean Tamales, so have a couple and a drink before you move on to your next restaurant.
Read Review

2) Sushi Roku - Las Vegas

The perfect after meal snack is Sushi. Sushi Roku is the best place to go and sample just enough food to get you through to your before dinner afternoon meal. Since you are in the Forum shops take a little stroll around the mall and get yourself ready for an afternoon of eating.
Read Review

3) Ventuno at the Flamingo Hotel

Walk across the street from Caesars palace and sample some pizza at Ventuno. Just a slice is all you'll need to give you an idea if you want to return on another visit.
Read Review

4) Isla Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar at Treasure Island

Sure four meals in a small amount of time can be excessive but in Las Vegas you create your own fun. Take a short walk from the Flamingo over to the TI and have one Margarita and a couple of tacos at Isla. Stay away from the chips and salsa because that could ruin your chances at 3 more menus before the day is over.
Read Review

5) Red 8 Asian Bistro in the Wynn Las Vegas

As the sun starts setting on your day, your epic battle to try as many restaurants in a day will deliver you to some Southeast Asian cuisine at Red 8 Asian Bistro. Eat family style and try just enough protein to get you going for a late night meal and then a desert. Try a little roast duck and roast pork and you should be ready for dinner.
Read Review

6) Nobu at the Hard Rock Hotel

This is the meal you have been waiting for all day. Sit back and relax and have the fine dining experience that everybody talks about in Las Vegas. Nobu will put your intestines in digestive euphoria. Six restaurants in one day and you have a good idea of what Las Vegas dining is really about.
Read Review

7) FIX at the Bellagio

Did someone say dessert? What better way to end the night than with an espresso shake and some decadent chocolate cake? Fix at the Bellagio is where your culinary tour will end and gastronomic pleasures will reach their peak.
Read Review

Las Vegas tourism officials played only a small role in deciding which entertainers would showcase the city to more than 200 countries that televised Sunday's NBA All-Star Game.

The team responsible for putting together the dazzling pregame and half-time entertainment - and, oh yeah, the game - was the NBA itself.

NBA spokesman Matt Bourne said a "well-seasoned" group of entertainment experts working for the association produced the event. And the premier pro basketball league paid the big-name local headliners nothing, as is the NBA's tradition for its star-studded event.

"The entertainment we use supplements the game," Bourne said. "It is used to enlarge the main event. The game is the focus."

"It's the Queen of Las Vegas on one corner and the King of Pop on the other," Marino, the Joan Rivers impersonator and longtime star of "An Evening at La Cage" at the Riviera, said Monday morning. "I don't know if the property values will go up or down."

The oft-reported Jackson home is a 16,000-square-foot dwelling, which he leases from San Francisco real estate magnate Luke Brugnara. It sits just two houses away from a 1.5-acre plot owned by Marino (which is not hard to find, as a sign reading "Future homesite of Frank Marino" has been placed on the property).

Marino said he was not aware of his famous neighbor until a reporter called a couple of weeks ago to tell him about the man on the corner. But Marino was aware of his other famous neighbor, Gary Payton, whose home sits between Marino's plot and Jackson's haunt.

"He's a basketball player or something," Marino said. "I don't know the players. But if you ask me about fashion, that I know."
Las Vegas SUN: John Katsilometes

Finding enough employees to clean the rooms, work the restaurants and staff the casinos may not be as easy.

More Here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-19-Mon-2007/business/12603617.html

Four people were shot, including three who were critically injured, during two incidents that occurred between 4 and 5 a.m. at two locales on or near the Strip, said Jose Montoya, Las Vegas police spokesman.

One man was shot in the hip inside the parking garage of the MGM Grand. He declined to press charges, and police are not following up on the incident, Montoya said.

More Here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-20-Tue-2007/news/12693500.html

The provocative new adult show, "X" Burlesque opened this week at the Flamingo in the intimate 180-seat Flamingo Cabaret. The show allows audiences to get up close and personal with the six beautiful and talented female dancers. Show times are Monday-Friday at 10 p.m. Wednesday at 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at midnight. Tickets are $44.95 and $55.95, call702-733-3333 or 800-221-7299.

The sexy revue combines imaginative choreography with some outrageous props including bungees, bathtubs and beds. The 90-minute production has seductive scenes ranging from sensual ballet-inspired numbers to funky and energetic acrobatic routines. The variety of styles allows each dancer to showcase her own distinctive talents.

Erotic imagery pushing the envelope includes "Pharaoh Fawcet" with the girls performing a steamy belly dance to the Pussycat Dolls' dance hit "Buttons," and a 1960s-reminiscent "Sharon Delove," set to The Raconteurs' "My Baby's on the Level," features a gorgeous girl in nothing but go-go boots and body paint.

In partnership with SONY Pictures, Madame Tussauds Las Vegas has introduced a new interactive wax attraction at its box office entrance of actor Nicolas Cage in his "Johnny Blaze" role from the new SONY release, "Ghost Rider," which premiered last Friday, Feb. 16, in theaters nationwide.

Cage's wax figure is outfitted in his studded, black leather riding suit from the film and is standing next to the original Hell Cycle custom chopper which the actor deftly wields in the movie. The Hell Cycle is 11 « feet long and weighs 500 pounds. Like all Madame Tussauds interactive attractions, visitors can be photographed with the Cage figure and the Hell Cycle.

Comedy hypnotists Michael Johns and Terry Stokes are moving their hypnotic magic show, "Hypnosis Gone Wild," from KRAVE to the Empire Ballroom and open on Saturday, March 3 at 11 p.m. The two masters of hypnosis sometimes join forces and become a two-man tag team each trying to one-up the other and most nights they are alternating headliners working solo. Tickets for the nightly shows are $39.95 and $49.95. For information, call 702.415.LATE (5283).

The Empire Ballroom located at 3765 Las Vegas Boulevard South, opposite the Monte Carlo Resort, is a cutting-edge facility featuring a 900-seat theater, a 350-seat Cabana Room, a 250-seat VIP Gallery, eight Private Cabanas seating six-to-eight people, and distinctive lighting and production systems. The Empire Ballroom is also home to John Stagliano's "The Fashionistas" and Dillstar Productions, "The Soprano's Last Supper."
http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/brett/index.htm

There was a story in the Las Vegas Review Journal last week that finally gave some long-waited for details about the status of the changes at the hotel.

The rebranding from The Aladdin to Planet Hollywood will probably happen in April, timing that will coincide with the completion of much of the interior ground-level renovations. However that doesn’t mean that all work is stopping. Work on the exterior of the building will continue into the summer and room renovations (to remove the Arabian Nights scheme and add a Hollywood Nights one) will not even begin until April.

The entire façade of the hotel is being renovated now with construction extending past the April date to add new restaurants (including a branch of the famed Trader Vic’s) and retail space. Inside the casino will be expanded to include a poker room and sports book. The new Steve Wyrick theater complex just opened and another theater is being added.

The separately owned shopping mall now known as the Desert Passage will be remodeled and renamed Miracle Mile after all of the Road to Morocco detail is stripped away.

Finally, construction has begun on the condo/hotel towers going up behind the main building along Harmon Avenue.

So when will it be “done done”? Well, a wise hotel publicist once told me that renovations at Las Vegas hotels don’t actually stop. When they reach one end of the building they go back to the beginning and start over again. In other words, there is no such thing as “done done” but in real terms for Planet Hollywood, most of the heavy lifting should be done by late summer but there will be some sort of identifiable construction going on at the hotel or on its grounds well into 2008.
http://www.vegas4visitors.com/column/index.htm