Designer Lingerie
& Swim Show at The Venetian, BB King At The Hard Rock, Photoshop World
Conference & Expo, The Skeptics Annotated Bible, What Not To Wear – In
Saudi Arabia, Movies This Week, Body Responsibility, Anonymous
Assignation Protocols, and more...
The West Coast premier Women’s and
Men’s Intimate Apparel and Swimwear Trade Show was held August 27-28 at
The Venetian. I was an invited guest of CURVENV, returning to Las Vegas
for its second market exhibition occupying the center of the main floor
in the convention area. CURVENV offered a large array of 183 brands to
retailers. The CURVENV brand roster is 45% American and 55% from the
rest of the world, a balanced and comprehensive mix that provides a
global window into the latest fashion trends.
I spent two days in lingerie heaven and received a gift bag that
included a Mary Green eye mask (I don’t need to decorate those plain eye
masks from the airlines anymore). Each day there was a gourmet breakfast
and lunch, a private lounge sponsored by Wear? Canada!, an internet
café, and daily seminars on the fashion industry. The most interesting
seminar was on a newly-designed bra for “purchased” breasts by Le
Mystère held on Monday, August 27 at 3:00pm. There were 3 daily,
fully-accessorized fashion shows highlighting a specific category.
CURVENV’s 2008 plans include the Fall-Winter 2008 Market Week in New
York on February, 3, 4, 5 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion and in Las Vegas
again on February 14, 15, 16 at the Venetian.
Tonight, Monday, September 3rd, we are
going to see BB King & Al Green (with special guest Sebastian Maniscalo)
at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The reigning king of
blues, BB King has been entertaining fans for more than half a century
with Billboard-topping R&B classics including
To Know You is to Love You and
his 1988 hit single, When Love Comes
to Town. I’ve seen BB King once before and he is fantastic! He
certainly deserves his title! BB will be joined by Al Green, American
gospel and soul-singer in this very special performance. These two music
legends will be assisted by Sebastian Maniscalo, one of today’s hottest
rising comedians. Tickets are $98, $128 and $148.
http://www.hardrockhotel.com/rock_thejoint.php
Kings
of Leon. Coming next Tuesday, Sept.11th at 8pm to The Joint is Kings of
Leon. (With special guests Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Manchester
Orchestra). Southern rockers Kings of Leon are three brothers and one
cousin from Tennessee. Kings of Leon newest album, Because of the Times
displays the band’s musical freedom and bolder direction. They will be
joined by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) an American rock band known
for performing tunes associated with garage rock, folk revival, blues
and often religiously inspired lyrics. Tickets are $29.50 and $55
(reserved seats).
http://www.hardrockhotel.com/rock_thejoint.php
The Hard Rock is also hosting Friday Night Live - Summer Concert
Series by the Pool with September’s line-up Snoop Dogg on Friday, Sept.
7th at 10 pm, The Donnas on Sept 14th, Kinky on Sept 21, and Louis XIV
on Sept 28th.
Want to fit into that new
lingerie? Or buy a pair of pants without a drawstring? Rob Stevens is on
a campaign to put an end to fat people. Rob used to be morbidly obese at
5’9” and over 300 pounds. Now he is the founder of
www.NABR.com and the author of
the self-help book The Overfed Head.
There are a lot of fat tourists in Las Vegas, but according to a new
study, Mississippi is the fattest state in the nation. Mississippi is
the first state where more than 30 percent of adults are considered
obese! So, if you are merely fat, go to Mississippi. You’ll be one of
the sexy ones.
http://www.thintuition.com/products.php?category_id=103
Most, if not all, of Wednesday’s
pre-workshops at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo at Mandalay Bay
are sold out. Both evening parties (Photoshop World Party at $49.00 a
ticket and Photoshop World Pro Pass at $100 a ticket) are sold out. On
September 6 through 8 the Conference officially opens beginning with two
new courses called The Art of
Photoshop and Photoshop Finishing
Touches with Bert Monroy.
To navigate around the Photoshop class schedule you have to know the
code. There are many different “tracks” in Photoshop: Creativity Track,
Productivity Track, Photoshop® CS3 Extended - Special Interest Track,
Photoshop® & Digital Photography Track, Photoshop & Digital Photo
Techniques Track, and Adobe® Web Tools Track. There will be several
special events including for beginners,
Photoshop For Geeks Scripting Class
and Photoshop for Geeks Hands-on
Scripting Class (Intermediate) and
Adobe Birds of a Feather: For Engineers, Architects and Manufacturing
Professionals. This is just a sample of Thursday’s seminars!
Unfortunately, there is no class for me called
I Just Bought Photoshop, What Do I Do
Now?
Friday’s schedule brings out the serious Photoshoppers with “Tracks”
titled Using Photoshop Extended in
Science & Research and Invisible
Light in Black and White, A Fantastic Voyage Into Scientific and
Biomedical Imaging and Creating Photographic Fine Art Montages.
There are some gentler seminars “tracks” called
Photoshop Killer Tips for Photographers
and Lighting Without Lights and
Top 10 Photoshop Techniques.
Photoshop World Update
I’ll report next week how I did amongst the Photoshop Geeks.
Movies This Week. “The Nanny Diaries” (YES), “Balls of Fury” (NO),
“3:10 To Yuma” (YES), “Halloween” (YES), “Death Sentence (YES).
Russell Crowe and director James Mangold resurrect the
Western! But Ben Foster as Crowe’s devoted wingman almost walks off with
the movie. You will see it twice. Here is one remake that delivers. I
never saw the Van Heflin-Glenn Ford original and neither did you.
(You’ll have to rent it on Netflix.) So this is a brand new Western for
those of us under 75. And I am sure that the new screenwriters bumped up
not only the sexual quotient, but the dialogue. All the scenes between
Crowe and Bale are terrific. There’s dialogue between Crowe and Bale
discussing money that you will love.
Thankfully, the director has studied Crowe’s sexual appeal and dwells
on his glances, smiles, and seductive line delivery. Crowe knows exactly
what he is doing – he turns every male co-star into playful prey. As
notorious outlaw Ben Wade, Crowe is like a big alley cat teasing
motherless kittens. He does it here with Christian Bale, whose role as
rancher Dan Evans is callused by failure, debt, and cowardliness. It
certainly doesn’t help that Bale’s character has two sons: a sickly
young one and a 14 year-old who is ashamed of him. This is the kind of
guy who comes up against Crowe’s sadistic, infamous outlaw who happens
to be proud of his double-digit killings. When Wade is caught, Evans
volunteers, for a badly needed $200, to join the posse that must take
the outlaw to the town of Contention and get him on the 3:10 prison
train to Yuma. The Western is back.
We’re going on a trek to East
Africa next month (spending several days on our own in Nairobi!) and I
was horrified to read the State Department’s latest travel advisory
which issued this very stern warning: “Kenya's crime and trans-national
terrorism ratings both remain at critical levels. The State Department
updated the Travel Warning for Kenya to note the sharp increase in
violent crime. The greatest threats in Kenya are road safety, crime and
terrorism. The most common crime in Kenya (especially in Nairobi) is
carjacking in order to commit an armed robbery. In virtually every
instance, carjackers use weapons to rob their victims.
“Criminals who commit these crimes will not hesitate to shoot a
victim who is the least bit uncooperative, or may appear to hesitate
before complying with his/her assailant. This includes victims who may
be complying, but who must do something like unfastening a seat belt
before getting out of the car. During a carjacking, if you must do
anything as a prerequisite to following carjackers' instructions, be
sure to tell them what you are doing, and assure them you are
complying.”
Nairobi has such a distinction as being a crime-ridden, dangerous
city with “notoriously high levels of violent armed robberies,
burglaries, and carjackings” that it has earned the nickname "Nairobbery"
and a UN “Status C” ranking as among the most insecure cities in the
world! Baghdad, I’m prepping myself for you! (Pictured: A photo of
Nairobi’s famous City Market that I’ll probably never visit.)
I watch CBS’ 48 Hour Mystery, NBC’s Dateline, and ABC’s
Primetime: Crime and always wonder why aged parents do not seek a more
satisfying solution when the lousy spouse kills their son or daughter.
Since personal revenge is very rare, the police must be doing a terrific
job in promising that life in prison is more rewarding than a bloody
death at the hands of a grieving parent.
Some killers spend decades not even getting charged with the crime.
How do parents go on knowing their child’s killer is free to enjoy life,
even marrying again? A terminally ill or old parent could do a lot of
damage.
Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) agrees with me on retribution. (God is busy.
Sometimes He needs help.) Nick and his wife Helen have two sons, but
dote on their eldest son who is promising athlete. Rather cruelly, they
seem to ignore the quiet, more ordinary son. After a sports game in an
unfamiliar part of town, Nick stops for gas and his son is viciously
murdered by a gang member during a gang initiation.
The D.A. lays out the reality of the law to Nick telling him he
should agree to a plea deal of a few years in prison for killer. There
is a real possibility that a jury trial may set him free. Instead of
naming the guy as his son’s killer, Nick refuses to identify him. The
killer walks, but Nick goes after him. In a violent struggle, Nick stabs
him to death. The gang’s leader incites his gang to avenge the death.
Bacon throws himself into the role showing the fear and then shock of
actually killing someone. When he shaves his head and puts away his
business suit, we know there will be an uncompromising solution.
History International’s Naked Archaeologist went
to Israel to investigate the mythology of King David. Producer,
director, and star Simcha Jacobovici was interested in King David’s
stash of enemy foreskins. I did some research and found The Skeptics
Annotated Bible website. This is the only way to read the Bible! An
adorable little icon says “David Mutilates 200. Gets Married.”
1 Samuel 18. 18:25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David,
The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the
Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to
make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 18:26 And when
his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the
king's son in law: and the days were not expired. 18:27 Wherefore
David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two
hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in
full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul
gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1.html There is also a
Skeptics Annotated Koran.
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/index.htm
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially banned foreigners from
bringing in Bibles, crucifixes, Stars of David and other non-Islamic
religious items. (I looked all over Egypt, Turkey, and Mali and could
not find one Islamic religious item representing Mohammed – even with
his face covered with a veil or painted white. John had no luck in
Afghanistan either.) The Muslim country threatens to confiscate these
items from foreign visitors along with other prohibited items such as
narcotics, firearms and pornography, according to Saudi Arabian
Airlines, the country’s national carrier.
An official from the Saudi Consulate in New York said that foreigners
wanting to bring a Bible or wearing a crucifix or Star of David around
their neck would face problems with Saudi authorities.
This
new ruling comes as Saudi Arabia has been pushing forth initiatives to
increase tourism this summer by easing certain travel procedures such as
issuing group visas to foreigners through tour operators and granting
longer entry visas. The Saudi Supreme Commission for Tourism aims to
boost the number of foreign tourists to 1.5 million annually by 2020 by
banning non-Islamic religious items.
I had to tear out the page with Dalai Lama’s likeness in my Lonely
Planet travel guide in the fear that it would be confiscated by
authorities and I would be thrown in a Chinese prison.
Thanks to 62 year
old Senator Larry Craig of Idaho pleading guilty in August to
misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested trolling for sex at
the Minneapolis airport, we now know the protocol for having anonymous
sex in a men’s public restroom.
There is even a name for public sex – it’s called “cottaging.”
Men seeking sexual contact with men in public restrooms must adhere
to a highly structured and sequential pattern of interaction. These
"scripts" generally involve eye contact, movement, and position in the
restroom, and very rarely include any verbal exchange.
The secret signals, what to do with the roller bag, the toe-tapping
and hand – palm up - sliding technique, are out of the stall.
According to the undercover cop who was the target of Craig’s
cruising, he recognized the tapping “as a signal used by persons wishing
to engage in lewd conduct."
The hand gesture is regarded as an invitation to kneel on the floor
while putting one’s genitalia under the partition to be fondled or
fellated.
In a widely seen outdoor press conference, Craig, accompanied by his
wife, declared: "Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay,"
He then explained why he kept the arrest a secret. "I wasn't eager to
share this failure, but I should have anyway -- because I am not gay!"
There is a clear distinction in Craig’s (and other men’s) mind.
Whatever would have gone on, he’s not gay.
There is a new clinical definition between “gay” and “straight”:
Craig is “a man who has sex with other men” (MSM) but identifies himself
as straight. WebMd Medical News, Sept. 18, 2006, stated the results of a
New York City survey: Nearly one in 10 men who say they're straight have
sex only with other men. And 70% of those straight-identified men having
sex with men are married. In fact, 10% of all married men in this survey
report same-sex behavior during the past year.
