BB King & Al Green at The Joint at HRH, MTV’s VMA Awards at The Palms, nFusion Private Event at World Market Center, What I’m Reading, Movies This Week, and more...

"The leader who stays in the rear takes it in the rear.” - Paul Giamatti as Hertz in “Shoot ‘Em Up”

BB King & Al Green at Hard Rock Hotel. The Joint has some VIP seating somewhere upstairs but I had a standing room only ticket. This meant that 50 of us had to keep moving being shoved by waitresses and security. For BB’s and Al’s fans, small folding chairs – lashed together with plastic ties – were set up. There must have been 500 or more people packed into The Joint. Many of them had trouble fitting into the seats. One robust man had to call out for a knife to cut free his chair so he’d have more room. When you have a standing-room only ticket, it’s not a good idea to get to the event one hour early. BB’s a legend and his fans cannot stand for 4 hours. But, let’s face it, he was worth the pain!

There were more canes than at Lourdes.

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalo (from Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Shows) opened and, even though he was hard to hear way in the back, was terrific! Like me, Maniscalo (pictured) was astonished at the HRH’s dress code. All the female hotel residents were walking around the casino in bikini tops and thongs. All the guys were shirtless in low-slung swimming trunks. Sebastian has a tough guy routine that went over well with the crowd. Starbuck’s latte? He hates those guys who want streamed cream on their Caramel Macchiato and need a coffee sleeve! If you are a man, Maniscalo says you take coffee black and so hot your hand catches fire. No cup “sleeve” allowed.

The Joint then went wild when the reigning king of blues, BB King, took to the stage. Al Green, gospel and soul-singer, led the audience in a Las Vegas-style tent revival. Even I yelled “halleluiah! There was speaking-in-tongues all around me. Tickets were $98, $128 and $148. http://www.hardrockhotel.com/rock_thejoint.php

VMA Awards. On Friday, September 7th, MTV officially took over Las Vegas as the biggest names in music, television, and movies descended on Sin City to prepare for the “2007 MTV Video Music Awards,” which aired live from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Sunday, September 9th at 9pm. Throughout the “Video Music Awards Weekend,” MTV hosted events at the Palms Casino Resort and around the city. On Saturday, September 8th at House of Blues in Las Vegas, MTV helped LIFEbeat celebrate with VMA Fandemonium: A Concert to Benefit LIFEbeat. The annual MTV concert to benefit LIFEbeat featured sizzling performances by VMA nominated artists Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke. VMA Fandemonium will also include DJ ? uestlove of the Grammy winning hip-hop group The Roots accompanied by MC Yameen Allworld. Tickets for VMA Fandemonium: A Concert to Benefit LIFEbeat, a 21 and over event, began at $75.00 for General Admission and $400.00 for VIP tickets. I was invited to cover the Red Carpet Arrivals from 10pm - 11pm before the show.

LIFEbeat is dedicated to reaching America's youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. LIFEbeat mobilizes the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and to provide support to the AIDS community.

Muslims Threatening Bologna’s Basilica of S. Petronio. Bologna's main Catholic Church is under serious threat of being vandalized by followers of the Prophet Mohammed. Construction on the imposing cathedral began in 1390 and was completed by 1500. One of the 15th century frescoes made by Renaissance artist, Giovanni da Modena, depicts a passage from Dante's “Inferno'' where the Prophet Mohammed is in hell. This sacred and historical church, and great piece of church architecture, has been turned into a fortress. Muslims explain their anger on the grounds that the fresco is `offensive', and police vigilantly patrol the area around the church.

Photoshop World Conference & Expo at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. You have no idea how huge Planet Photoshop is. The first Workshop I attended on Thursday was “Top 10 Photoshop Techniques” with Matt Kloskowski. It was over- filled. People, including me (and I got there early) sat on the floor. What did I learn? I could dedicate my life to Photoshop and its secrets. Next I went into “Photoshop Killer Tips for Photographers” presented by the President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) Scott Kelby. NAPP currently has with 70,000 Photoshop members and it costs $99 a year to join. Kelby was incredibly charming but there were so many critical technical problems that I left for “As Easy As 1, 2, 3” with Ben Willmore.

On Friday I attended “7 Photoshop Functions You Never Use, But Should” by Dave Cross.

On Saturday morning – too early! – I went to two very important new “tracks”: “The Art of Photographing Women” and “The Art of Retouching Women” presented by Kevin Ames. What else do I need to know? Photoshop World Update

Nfusion’s Showroom VIP Party. The World Market Center will be the destination point for the home furnishing industry, but it is closed to the public and is only for guests of a registered buyer or designer. All visitors must be pre-approved by a showroom representative. However, WMC has begun inviting pre-registered guests to a First Friday of the Month Open House.

The nFusion Showrooms held their first ever VIP Invited Guests Open House on Friday, September 7, for my friends. (Photo of the Burmese marionette I brought. Isn’t it gorgeous?) This was a terrific opportunity to have a private viewing of Nfusion’s original, high-concept Asian home furnishings.

nFusion’s Import Specialist & Clients Liaison Debbie Tham was a terrific hostess and showed off the company’s treasures. Debbie brought out nFusion’s warehouse samples and everyone brought lots of below wholesale price treasures. Everyone who came asked to be invited back. It was a huge success! nFusion’s 3 permanent showrooms are on the first floor of Building A of the World Market Center. If you are interested in attending the next Open House event at nFusion on Friday, November 2 from 3PM to 7PM, send Debbie an email at debbietham@sbcglobal.net.

What I’m Reading. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine. Amazon.com: The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus: Books: Amy-jill Levine. I love that scholars are so obsessed and angry over Jesus Christ! Scholars can’t get over the fact that His message resonated and continues to resonate throughout the world.

Obviously there was something about the Jewish religion that wasn’t working back then. Not everything could have been made up by Saint Paul. Lots of people heard Jesus preach. Think about it: Could everyone back then have been so dumb to be fooled by a false prophet? His message, “The Way,” was inclusive. Why not pick on the Prophet Mohammed or Buddha instead? Why is Joseph Smith getting off so easy?

“Alexander's Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror” by Nicholas J. Saunders. Bad news: It’s still lost. How in the world could this be possible with all the high tech hardware and satellites we have now? Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, is as well-known as The Sphinx but he still hasn’t found his Howard Carter treasure. Why not go out big finding Alexander’s Tomb? Or Cleopatra Vll’s mummy?

According to Saunders, “Alexander was the single most famous and influential rival to Christ.” He was considered a god. His memory and his tomb had to go. So after Constantine the Great surveyed Egypt and the pagan reverence for Alexander the Great’s tomb, he ordered the immediate finding of Christ’s tomb. Saunders writes that Constantine “out-tombed Alexander and made Christianity more user-friendly in the process. Christ’s tomb would trump the Soma [Alexander’s mausoleum] and all the lesser pagan tombs of the empire. Alexander’s mausoleum would soon disappear and Christ’s tomb would evolve into the central and iconic pivot of Christendom.”

Saunders says Constantine “arbitrarily” and conveniently found Christ’s tomb. “Constantine had created a pagan-like cave tomb for Christianity.”

The vanishing of Alexander’s Tomb is akin to there being, in the year 4000 C.E., a hunt to find the lost tomb monument that was said to have held the body of General U.S. Grant. Where was it? And what happened to it? Amazon.com: Alexander's Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror: Books: Nicholas J. Saunders

“Aghora lll: The Law of Karma” by Robert E. Svoboda. This is the third book by Svoboda (pictured) I’ve read and, while it is bogged down with horse racing antidotes (his mentor owned, bred, and raced horses) and quaint Hindu stories, it is a harrowing report on the true Law of Karma. If you think karma is simple, you are wrong!

Here is just one thing I’ve learned from the Aghori Vimalananda: Let’s say you are a criminal lawyer and you successfully defend a killer. He goes free. You are now bound to his karma. His past criminal act and future bad acts accrue to you! You will have to pay off his karmic debt as well as your own! According to Vimalananda, he would never donate his eyes after his death to a blind man fearing that the man would engage in new sensory pleasures and perhaps commit crimes. Then Vimalananda would be responsible to pay for the crimes. For this reason, Vimalananda warns against donating any body parts.

My husband John, who was so kind and generous to my mother for many years before her passing, gave me his good karma points for my “Karma Pension.” Every time we would see my mother, I would accrue double “merit.” John didn’t want his good karma points piling up.

Vimalananda says “almost all karma is curses and blessings.” The most extraordinarily powerful blessing is a deathbed blessing.

Vimalananda also notes the bad karma amassed in just one piece of money. I’m now thinking I should wear gloves when handling cash.

I’ll market the gloves as No Karma Money GlovesTM.

Aghori ascetics, devotees of the Hindu god Shiva, maintain that all opposites are identical and that the conventional Hindu distinctions between purity and impurity are ultimately illusory. Aghoris base their beliefs on two principles. First, that the gods are perfect. Second, that the gods are responsible for everything; every rock, tree, animal, and even every thought. Due to this, everything that exists must be perfect, and to deny the perfection of anything would be to deny the gods.

For this reason, Aghoris are known to prove their faith by challenging pre-conceived notions of the grotesque, and find the beauty or perfection in such conventionally taboo notions as, for example, cannibalism. (Pictured: Pagal Mauni Baba of the Aghori section of the Gorakhnathis. His name means 'mad, divinely intoxicated' and 'non-speaking' (but he does do email).

I joined an aghora tribe: http://tribes.tribe.net/aghora/

In an attempt to curb superstition and black magic, the Maharashtra Eradication of Black Magic and Evil and Aghori Practices Bill of 2005 is expected to be the first such law to be passed in India this year. Amazon.com: aghora lll law of karma: Books

Movies This Week. “Shoot ‘Em Up” (YES), “The Brothers Solomon” (NO-Don’t Ask).

“Shoot ‘Em Up.” It’s a vicious, bloody fantasy movie not for everybody. However, if you enjoy this type of random, high-octane action thriller, “Shoot ‘Em Up” is awesome and should not be missed! I loved everything about this movie beginning with the cast: An unwashed, non-botoxed Clive Owen in grimy clothes, a disgusted look, and a kinky sex life; Italian goddess Monica Bellucci as a brothel temptress; and, finally, a role that makes me like Paul Giamatti. (I did like his nasty work in “The Nanny Diaries.” Does he have a new agent that is guiding his career in the right direction? I don’t want to see Giamatti shirtless or as Mandy Moore’s love interest. He is terrific as a mean little man.)

Mr. Smith (Owen) is waiting for a bus chewing on a lethal weapon carrot when a screaming pregnant woman runs by him. She is being pursued by a determined gaggle of gunmen. Even though the woman is running from a platoon of assassins, Smith decides to intervene. Using brilliant tactics of gunplay birthed in comic book fantasy, Smith starts killing the bad guys while delivering the baby. Hiding mother and baby, Smith continues on a violent rampage until he has savagely killed all of them sans their vicious boss Hertz (Giamatti).

Hertz kills the mother and then his own men. He’s that mad. Smith takes the baby and goes to his favorite brothel. He tries to give the baby to lactating DQ (Bellucci) but Hertz follows him and another round of carnage ensues. In a fury, Hertz calls up an employment agency for hitmen and orders 50 gunmen. Why do these guys want to kill the baby? No spoilers here except to say it worked for me.

Big Mr. Smith easily carries around the swaddled baby as he fights his way through an amazing, gun blazing pursuit on highways and in warehouses. There is even a terrific gun battle while Smith and DQ are having sex! And let’s not ignore the sky-diving gunfight. The director, Michael Davis (coming out of nowhere), puts everybody on notice. “Shoot ‘Em Up” is now the gold standard of ultra-violence.

Sippenhaft (Kin Liability). What is Europe going to do about the influx of too many immigrants having too many children the society cannot and does not want to support? With the “One Man One Vote” and “All Men Are Created Equal” (thank you Thomas Jefferson), what will Europeans do as they confront the huge numbers of immigrants coming into their countries? Italy, Germany and France have drastically falling birth rates.

The Swiss People's Party has launched a twofold campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence. But far more dramatically, it has announced its intention to lay before parliament a law allowing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed.

"We believe that parents are responsible for bringing up their children. If they can't do it properly, they will have to bear the consequences," Ueli Maurer, president of the People's Party, (pictured in front of the cartoon) told The Associated Press. It will be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft – kin liability – whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally.

Pope Benedict XVI rejected the concept that abortion could be considered a human right last week and urged European leaders to do everything possible to raise birth rates and make their countries more child-friendly. The average birth rate in the European Union is down to about 1.5 children per woman, raising fears that an aging population will not be able to finance pension systems.

You know the old adage – as Switzerland goes, so goes Europe.