Tuesday Tunes - CHER!

That's right.

I saw Cher's Las Vegas show last weekend. I am hoping that it was only a technical hitch that prevented the newly-inserted Burlesque video montage from being inserted (and on the eve of La Stupenda winning a Golden Globe for 'You Haven't Seen The Last of Me', no less!)

The show is enormously good fun, and Cher presides over the insanity like a benevolent alien with chameleonic tendencies. She sings a song - invariably sings the shit out of it - and then disappears while we watch a video montage of some aspect of her general fabulosity. She then reappears on a completely reconfigured stage, in a totally different outfit. And let's face it, that is what we come to see.

Curiously, her audience wasn't the demographic you might imagine (…) - it was mostly middle-aged, fat, mid-Western women. The wives of those men who are in Vegas to gamble. Cher herself commented on this, and hilariously referred to herself as 'the old naked bitch'. For which she has my admiration and respect!

The show was fun, the dancers were incredible (including one guy who did a full somersault FROM ONE FOOT. Twice.), the lady herself did not disappoint, but the audience were pretty unpleasant throughout. My companion and I were discussing this, and I decided that the best way to describe them was "Swine before Pearls".

Another old battle-axe off my list of People To See Live. Maybe THAT should be my 30 before 30?!

Sunday Spices - Vegas Edition

So, this being Vegas, I can't be ordinary and present anything run-of-the-(spice)-mill. So today our Spice (...) of discussion is going to be as extravagant and opulent (and expensive) as this glittering playground in the sand - the truffle.

I've not had much experience of truffles in my life - indeed I think the first time I ever tasted them was at a fancy dinner party thrown by my mate Alec Von Bargen in Tokyo. He had run all over the city trying to find them, and doubtless had to mortgage his internal organs to pay for them.

It's an unusual flavour - I've no idea how I'd approach cooking them. Anything that expensive, I'm cagey about preparing. I am all about trial-and-error - so long as the trials aren't too pricey! And, as blogged previously, I hate waste. So messed up truffles would be a disaster.

Tonight at the MGM, I met my dear and lovely friend Ruth, (Dr. Ruth, indeed), and we had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant there. We shared a bottle of wine called 'Irony' (how perfect is that?) and then came back two hours later for more food. Splendid all round - but the triumph of the evening was convincing our second waiter to prepare the truffled potato chips with a lighter cheese than the one on the menu. Waiter #1 was no help, but #2 was marvellous. Guess who got a good tip?!

Here are some photos of Ruth and her truffled - delicious - potatoes, Traci and her extravagant dessert, and Ruth and me posing. Viva Las Vegas!

Seasonal Saturday - LAS VEGAS

Well, thanks to MLK Day, this is a long weekend. So - along with a substantial number of UCLA people - I'm heading to Las Vegas!

Observance of the seasons and delicate, nuanced haiku-esque awareness of the passage of time are all well and good, but this trip has been in the making since last summer. Indeed, it was supposed to be my birthday present!

[Happy Birthday to me. ]

Ironically, despite the glitz, awesomely manipulative architecture, 24-hour gambling and general extravagance, I'm thinking I'll spend much of the weekend with my nose in a new book. It's called 'Hidden Buddhas', and get this - it's by Liza Dalby, whose 'East Wind Melts The Ice' is the inspiration for Seasonal Saturdays on this blog!

Full circle. Om. Now for the slot machines....