The
Masai Mara National Park, Palace Station’s L.A. Comedy Club, Taser
Foundation, Beauty and the Bet at Palms Casino, Saucer Smear, Peter
Rojcewicz and the Men In Black, Movies This Week, Mini-review of The
Kite Runner, Elderly Ladies Go To Kenya for Sex, The Sinking of the MV
Explorer, and more...
I prefer ugliness to beauty, because ugliness
endures. - Serge Gainsbourg
The Masai (Maasai) are one of the best known African
tribes distinctive for their tall muscular features, fierce reputation,
and especially their appearance. As proud warriors they carry their
spears and wear a bright blood-red shoulder cloak (shuka).
The women wear bangles and strings of colored beads
around their neck and both sexes wear earrings, taking pride in
stretching large holes in their ear lobes and cutting the earlobe in two
(pictured). It’s weird, but should become a trend after scarification.
The women generally have shaved heads (head-shaving is a significant
feature of both men and women). In the early 1960's the Masai lost most
of their territory during the government land redistribution programs.
With the creation of the Masai Mara National Reserve, the Masai receive
19% of the entry fees.
You can become an honorary member of the Masai for a
$400 initiation ceremony. The Masai are semi-nomadic pastoralists.
Cattle are a major sign of wealth and exchanged during marriage (10 cows
buys a wife). The quantity of cattle is more important than the quality.
Masai families live in an Enkang (containing 10-20
small squat huts made from branches pasted with fresh cow-dung (by the
women) which bakes hard under the hot sun. Masai huts are very small,
with not enough height for people to stand upright or lie fully
stretched. They are also very dark with a small door-way and tiny hole
in the roof.
Both
sexes are initiated into young adulthood through circumcision. For boys
it is between the ages of 15-18 and much younger for girls. I asked our
Masai guide, when he introduced the subject of male circumcision, about
Female Genital Cutting, which the Masai practice. He told me that
Westerner organizations have indeed come several times and tried to make
them stop female circumcision, but they were told to go home. The Masai
were insulted that Westerners have tried to change their historical
customs. I agree. He told me a Masai man would never marry a woman who
was not circumcised. The Masai are fiercely independent and whatever the
Kenyan government does has little effect on them. (Photos: a Masai woman
with her child; I look strange posing with the Masai ladies, but don’t
you love those Haan Cole boots?; Masai men win favor with women by how
high they can jump; shopping at the Masai Duty Free Shops; and my
favorite, a little boy rushed up to help his father make fire. I took a
fire-making lesson and had a friend digitally record it for my Survivor
audition tape.)
Palace Station’s newest entertainment
offering, the LA Comedy Club is now opened nightly and features two
headlining caliber comedians, in The Showroom at Palace Station. On
December 1st, we saw Mark Yaffee and Tim O’Rourke.
Mark Yaffee is a writer and performer whose comedy
routine is inspired by his Mexican-Irish upbringing and his native
Navajo roots. I especially enjoyed hearing Mark say a lapdance should b
e called “grope-a-dope.” I really liked his T-shirt, “Drug Free. I ran
Out Yesterday”, that was on sale outside (along with his DVD).
Tim
O’Rourke is best known for his appearances as Tim the jovial bartender
on “The Drew Carey Show.” He is also a writer for the Nickelodeon shows,
“Fairly OddParents” and “SpongeBob Squarepants.” Tim was hysterical! He
constantly teased the audience that we all came on the “short bus,” and
he was our spokesperson. Definitely see Tim if he returns to the L.A.
Comedy Club at Palace Station.
Palace Station hosts two hour-long shows nightly, at
7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the 50-seat The Showroom. Tickets are $24.95 each
and include either two drinks inside the showroom or a meal at the
Palace Station Feast Buffet that must be redeemed within seven days of
purchase date. How good a deal is this? It brings back the good old days
of Las Vegas deals! The featured comedians will alternate every one to
two weeks, splitting their time on stage equally. Tickets are available
for purchase by calling (702) 574-5300, online at
www.palacestation.com or at the Palace Station Box Office. Following
is the upcoming lineup:
The Palace Station LA Comedy Club’s lineup for
December 3 to 9, will be Derrick Cameron and Dennis Blair. Derrick
Cameron’s comedic career began at the Comedy Store in La Jolla, Calif.
and he quickly became a regular act at the Improv in San Diego leading
him make comedy his full-time job.
Dennis Blair is an accomplished screenwriter,
award-winning songwriter and comedic actor. As Rodney Dangerfield’s made
him his protégé and together they toured the United States and Canada
for more than three years. Blair conceived and co-wrote Dangerfield’s
hit movie “Easy Money,” and also played two cameo roles.
On Saturday, December 1st, we went
to our friend, CEO’s Rick Smith’s “Beauty and the Bet charity fundraiser
at the Palms Casino & Resort. The TASER Foundation in association with
11-time World Series of Poker Champion Phil Hellmuth and the Palms
Casino present a charity poker tournament to benefit the families of
fallen officers.
Players
were pitted against Phil Hellmuth and the Playboy Playmates for a
no-holds-barred poker showdown after the elimination rounds. 50% of the
tournament proceeds were paid to the winners’ pool, and the other 50%,
net of tournament expenses, will go to the families of fallen police
officers through the TASER Foundation (a tax exempt 501c3). Donations
are tax deductible.
The Main Event began at Noon and there was a $500 Buy
In. The High Roller Tournament’s Buy In was $2,500 and started at
5:00PM. Among the players was Montel Williams (pictured with baseball
cap, next to Rick Smith on his right, unidentified poker master and host
between Rick and his brother Tom Smith).
Alice
in Chains member Jerry Cantrell (pictured) was at another High Roller
table. Everyone who entered the High Roller Tournament was given a
silver bracelet for entrance into (with the Playboy Playmates) at the
famous Fireplace VIP booth in the Playboy Club and then the after-after
party at the Palms Sky Villa.
I chatted up the 8th and 10th placed winners for some
tips. Here is what I learned for next year. The 10th place winner laid
out the landscape for me. He brought in for $500 (a tax deductible
contribution). He was given $2,000 in play money. He got bumped out of
the game by his accountant. Jokingly, he complained and the accountant
said, ‘Okay I’ll do your taxes next year for free.’ Now, Number 10 just
saved himself $1,000! Getting bumped from the game, he had to cash out
and was given $250. He made out like a bandit, had a great afternoon
playing Texas Hold ’Em, and got a T-shirt! He never played poker before!
My husband John has been a strong advocate of
TASER for many years and is an unofficial spokesperson for the company.
The TASER Foundation was set up in respond to the law enforcement
officers in the United States and Canada who have made the ultimate
sacrifice and are tragically killed in the line of duty. In response to
these tragedies, and as a way to give back to the law enforcement
community, TASER International, Inc. established the TASER Foundation
for Fallen Officers in November 2004. The initial endowment of
$1,000,000 came from TASER International, Inc. and the direct
contributions from TASER International employees.
To date the TASER Foundation has awarded over
$1,000,000 to the families of fallen law enforcement officers in the
United States and Canada. Photo of John being tasered by TASER CEO Rick
Smith. He is being held by Josh Alexander. Photo taken in 2001 at TASER
International, Inc. headquarters in Arizona in 2001. To anyone
interested in burglarizing our home, we have 3 tasers set on “go.”
“Strength and Honor,” (YES), “The Savages” (YES), “The Kite Runner”
(YES) and “Juno” (YES, YES), Awake (YES).
“The Kite Runner” is not about Afghanistan kids
flying kites; instead it is a harrowing story brought to life by 007’s
next director, Marc Forster. Hopefully, “The Kite Runner” foretells what
we are in store for with the next installment of the 007 franchise.
Forster can handle complex characters without pounding the audience over
the head with a message. He has made no concessions to what Hollywood
thinks we can handle. “The Kite Runner,” with no stars and subtitles for
two-thirds of the film, is a brilliant, must-see film.
The story begins in 1978 with two 12-year-old boys,
Amir and Hassan (pictured). Yet the two friends come from very different
economic and social classes: Amir’s father Baba is an aristocratic
scholar and pundit; Hassan’s father Ali has worked as a servant for
Amir’s family for 40 years. Ali and Hassan live in Baba’s large compound
and while Baba treats the boys equally, Amir feels his father hates him
for his mother’s death in childbirth. Hassan is also motherless but is,
emotionally and mentally, the stronger of the two. Both boys love the
national sport of kite flying and it is the only way that Amir feels he
can win his father’s admiration since Baba was a champion when he was a
boy.
Hassan
is Amir’s loyal friend and companion in a society that has strict class
codes. In another era Hassan would have been a prince’s “whipping boy.”
After Amir wins the kite competition and Hassan goes off to fetch the
prized kite, he is assaulted by higher-status boys. Amir watches the
sexual attack but does not come to his friend’s aid. To remove his shame
– he knows his father believes he is indeed a spineless coward and would
have condemned his lack of heroism – he must get rid of Hassan and thus
ignites a tragic tale.
Why the Taliban came to power and why the Afghan
people supported them is not addressed. After the oppressive Soviet
occupation and then civil war, Afghans saw the deeply religious Taliban
as a solution against widespread corruption and ruthless warlords. The
Taliban re-united the country, restored peace, and renewed commerce.
However, their success was brought about through the institution of a
very strict interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law.
Not
shown in “The Kite Runner” was the Taliban's treatment of women. Girls
were forbidden to go to school, women were barred from working outside
the home and forced to wear the burqa (I asked John to bring me back one
from Afghanistan). Women were prohibited from leaving their home without
a male relative—those that did so risked being beaten, even shot, by
officers of the "ministry for the protection of virtue and prevention of
vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her
fingertips chopped off.
In 2000 the Taliban cracked down on cultivation of
opium production by two-thirds. Unfortunately, the crackdown on opium
also abruptly deprived thousands of Afghans of their only source of
income. I recently saw a National Geographic Channel program, “Explorer:
Heroin Crisis” stating that with the end of the Taliban rule in
Afghanistan, the country now accounts for 93 per cent of the world's
opium production, the raw ingredients for heroin. Afghanistan produces
30% more opium than the world uses.
In October, 2001, the U.S. led an invasion of
Afghanistan and supposedly got rid of the Taliban.
Yet, as of 2007, the Taliban is coming back! Civilian
deaths caused by the bombing campaigns of international troops are
linked to the resurgence of the Taliban.
For the 2004
holidays we took a cruise to Antarctica on the MV Discovery. This was a
breathtaking revelatory experience. How many people throughout history
have been to Antarctica? It also brings into sharp focus that our planet
will survive - anything. There is much more to Earth then people!
Man is a side-project. An experiment! Perhaps even a malfunction to be
corrected in due time.
With much interest, I watched the unfolding drama of
the sinking of MV Explorer, supposedly having hit an iceberg.
Where’s
the iceberg? I’m not implying it didn’t hit an iceberg, but where’s the
iceberg? In the photos we took, you can clearly see the icebergs. They
are huge! And on these regular trips, a cruise ship’s path must be
pretty routine.
According to news reports, the 100-passenger vessel
had apparently hit an iceberg and was taking on water. Around 3 a.m. all
of Explorer's passengers — plus some crew, though not the captain and a
dozen staff — were put into the ship's lifeboats and Zodiacs (small
inflatable boats). The Explorer was in the middle of a 19-day tour of
South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. Twelve miles south of
King George Island at the accident position, it was still dark, the air
temperature in the low 30s, with water temperature a degree or two below
freezing. (Below, on the left, our ship the MV Discovery, on the right,
we board Zodiacs to go ashore.)
Accidents in the Antarctic by tourist ships is said
to be “not uncommon.” Last year, the Nord Cap, the sister ship to the
Nord Norge, ran aground near Deception Island (we were there!) and had
to unload its passengers onto the Norge. The last ship to sink in
Antarctic waters was the Bahia Paraiso, which sank off Janus and DeLaca
islands in 1989. With 25,000 tourists now visiting each year, on more
than 50 ships, accidents are an increasing concern.
According to one of the Explorer's crew, the ship had
apparently hit something — most likely an iceberg — which made a
fist-size hole in the hull. The 2,400-tonne vessel set out from the port
of Ushuaia on Argentina's southern tip on November 11 for a 19-day trip
through the Drake Passage. (Photo on left of just one iceberg we passed;
on right, our charming dinner companions, George Solis (l) and Robert F.
Mimm. George and Bob, champion race walkers, were terrific friends and
we loved seeing them at every meal. Of course, the staff was alerted –
and astonished - to my strictly adhered to shamanic diet.)
The Explorer is said to be one of the best-known
specialist cruise ships in the world.
Our dear friend James Mosley self-publishes the brilliant
“Saucer Smear” – It’s Still Shockingly Close to the Truth – and in his
self-anointed glorious Christmas 2007 issue has this report from the
October 2007 issue of “UFO Magazine” about two of my friends from my New
York days as a UFO huntress/abductee wanna-be.
Mosley
writes: “First, there is a very long letter to the editor from famed
abduction guru Budd Hopkins, in which he severely bashes famed ufologist
Whitley Strieber. Both of these gentlemen are known for the emotionalism
and god-given ability to take themselves Very Seriously Indeed. One of
the issues is whether or not Whitley’s wife once admitted publicly that
all of her husband’s books are fiction – not just the ones clearly
labeled as fiction.”
http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/
When I lived in New York I was a frequent guest at
Budd’s Greenwich Village townhouse. I’ve also known Whitley for many
years and whenever he comes to Las Vegas, we meet him and Anne the
dinner. So why dreg up the now decades old antagonism between these two?
They will be forever linked together. Between them over the years both
have lived through illnesses and traumas, yet they are still picking at
that abduction scab.
I will always cherish what our irascible friend
Philip J. Klass said about the whole abduction wave: ''In coming years,
when psychotherapists encounter patients who describe nightmares
involving curious 'sexual-medical procedures' performed by
strange-looking creatures and these patients express fears that they are
victims of an extraterrestrial genetic experiment, it would be fitting
if their malaise were referred to as 'Hopkins Syndrome,' in honor of the
author of 'Intruders.'"
(Group photo taken in the late 1980’s at Dr. Michael
Grosso’s Riverdale, New York apartment. In the middle row crouching down
is Peter Rojcewicz, Michael Grosso, Louise Grosso, and Jim (holding a
glass). Back row immediately behind Jim is literary agent/publisher
Sandra Martin. The other photo is of Whitley and my son Vladimir Lacas
taken in 1980’s at an upstate New York high school where Whitley gave a
talk. Was that the evening the audience held an outdoor vigil calling
down a UFO?
Peter Rojcewicz is a professor of
humanities and folklore at Julliard School in New York who also teaches
at the C.J. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology. One day in 1980
he found himself in a library on the campus of the University of
Pennsylvania browsing through a book on UFOs. The book had been
recommended to him by a colleague who erroneously assumed that Rojcewicz,
as a folklorist, would be interested in it.
At some point Rojcewicz became aware of a wrinkled
black pant leg and a scuffed black shoe out of the corner of his eye. He
looked up to find a man well over six feet tall and weighing no more
than 140 pounds standing before him. The figure was dressed in a black
suit which "looked as though [it had been] slept in for three days." The
man's shirt was bright white, nearly matching his deathly pallor.
Completely
uninvited, the man flopped down in a chair next to Rojcewicz and asked
what he was doing. Rojcewicz replied that he was looking at a book about
UFOs. The man asked if Rojcewicz had ever seen a UFO, to which the
professor replied in the negative.
The man then asked Rojcewicz if he believed that UFOs
were real. Rojcewicz responded that he really didn't have an opinion one
way or another and that, after studying the book in front of him, he
realized that he didn't have much of an interest in the subject. The man
suddenly screamed, "Flying saucers are the most important fact of the
century and you are not interested?" The man then suddenly rose as
awkwardly as he had sat down and appeared to regain his composure. He
put his hand on Rojcewicz's shoulder, said quietly, "Go well on your
purpose," and with that took his leave.
Within ten seconds of the strange man's departure,
Rojcewicz was engulfed by fear. He believed that he had had a genuinely
paranormal experience, and the idea terrified him. He took a walk around
the library in an attempt to collect his thoughts. Strangely, he could
not find another living soul in the building. He returned to where he
had been sitting, absolutely befuddled. An hour or so later he got up to
walk the library again. This time everything seemed back to normal. It
was not until later that Rojcewicz heard of MIB. He has since become one
of the leading authorities on the subject.
http://members.tripod.com/~RealMIB/petermib.html.
(Private message for Peter: Come to Las Vegas and
I’ll introduce to the man in the photo on the left.)
It used to be the
Bahamas and Jamaica (remember the stampede to go there after “How Stella
Got Her Grove Back”?) Just like old coots who take decades-younger wives
and reward them with acting jobs and boutique businesses, author Terry
McMillan bested all of them by writing a book about her 22 years younger
Jamaican lover who changed her life into a fairy tale. How did he thank
her? After six years of marriage to McMillan, Jonathan Plummer told her
he was gay. McMillan was furious, embarrassed, and humiliated.
Did she treat him like a house slave? Were Terry’s
friends too afraid of her to tell her Jonathan was gay? What’s wrong
with having a gay husband? All the gossip tabloids call Star Jones’s
husband, Big Gay Al Reynolds.
Apparently,
they had a successful sex life. If Plummer was gay, he must have
preformed quite impressively since McMillan moved him into her 4 million
dollar mansion and then married him.
Terry, when your husband wants to open a dog grooming
business, it’s a clue. (Pictured above, Terry and Jonathan face off on
Oprah. The other photo indicates what I did in Kenya.)
Now it’s Kenya! African men have a different cultural
view of women. If you are older than 40 in the U.S., society is finished
with you as a sexual being. You are told your sexual attractiveness is
behind you. Not a size 4, but a size 14?
You’ve got white hair and a belly? African men will
admire you. They like to see you eat a big meal.
While I was not aware of this when in Kenya (we were
on safari, not sex-tourism), this story has just appeared in the U.K.
press:
“Bethan, 56, lives in southern England next to her
best friend Allie, 64. They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a
country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older
girls." Hard figures are difficult to come by, but locals estimate that
as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in
search of sex!
“Bethan, was with her 20-year-old date, and
white-haired Allie was with her six-foot-four 23-year-old “boyfriend”
from the Masai tribe.
“As
many as 15,000 girls in four coastal districts in Kenya, about a third
of all 12-18 year-olds girls, are involved in casual sex for cash. Up to
3,000 more girls and boys are in full-time sex work. Now, there are
thousands of elderly white women hoping for romantic, and legal,
encounters with much younger Kenyan men.
“Experts say some thrive on the social status and
financial power that comes from taking much poorer, younger lovers.
"This is what is sold to tourists by tourism companies -- a kind of
return to a colonial past, where white women are served, serviced, and
pampered by black minions," said Julia Davidson, an academic at
Nottingham University. (Pictured: Two African boys (standing at back)
working as servants to a colonial family. From Sheila Macdonald, Sally
in Rhodesia. 1926.)
“Typically, the female tourists are on the lookout
for men like Joseph. Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic
basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100
white women, most of them 30 years his senior. "When I go into the
clubs, those are the only women I look for now," he told Reuters.”
