Kimo’s Vegas
Bruno Mars will perform at the ‘Billboard’ Music Awards. AP photo from Kimo Akane
WELCOME TO Kimo’s Vegas … The Player’s Edge!
PHOTO OP … The biggest names in the music biz will be in town for the
Billboard Music Awards. Bring your camera and join the paparazzi, or buy tickets to experience it live, or stay home and watch it on KITV from the comfort of your recliner May 19 at the MGM Grand Garden. Prince scores the “Icon” award – or is that the award formerly known as …? Confirmed performers include Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and local boy Bruno Mars.
THE AVERAGE ticket price for a Vegas show hit an all-time high of $80.22, according to the Las Vegas Advisor. Its research also indicated that the most expensive ticket on the Strip is a meet-the-stars VIP ticket to Donny & Marie that’ll ding your platinum for $310.50 per person. One of the cheapest big-name tickets you can buy are Celine Dion’s for $69 (from the box office at Caesars Colosseum).
CALL ME A geek, but when the clamor of the slot machines becomes oppressive, I’m fond of meandering through exhibitions like National Geographic‘s 50 Greatest Photographs. It’s on display now at the Imagine Exhibitions Gallery at The Venetian. In addition to iconic photos from the magazine, there are documentaries where the photographers describe their creative process.
YOU WOULD BE the king (or queen) of Kimo’s Vegas trivia if you knew that the Improv at Harrah’s Las Vegas is the longest-running comedy club on the Las Vegas Strip.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL’S theatrical tribute to Michael Jackson, ONE, opens June 15 at Mandalay Bay.
AND THE WINNER IS Michael … No multivariate analysis or Bayesian inference was needed to predict the winner when Michael Jordan teed up against Michael Phelps at the 12th annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational. A one-stroke differential was all that Phelps needed to win 73 to 72. Another sure bet: There’s a rematch in these champions’ future.
ACCORDING TO RJ Bell from pregame.com, Las Vegas odds makers had Tiger Woods favored 7 to 2 to win the Masters this year. That means a Benji will get you $350 if he gets another green jacket. In his latest podcast, RJ talks with Gill Alexander about applying advanced statistics to handicapping and MLB betting … Told you I am a geek.
YOU’D HAVE TO be from a Sentinelese tribe (the most isolated people on earth) not to have heard about Google Glass. The latest invention in eyewear takes pictures, records video and accesses the Internet. You can imagine how this kind of technology would freak out hyper-security-conscious places like casinos or places that wanna keep their practices on the down low … or gentlemen’s clubs, movie theaters or other places that want to keep their stuff off the Internet. So it should come as no surprise that, prior to the public beta test of the first wearable computer, casinos, strip clubs and theaters already are banning the device from their premises.
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