I had heard some of the shows in Vegas were spectacular, so we went to the ticket office on Saturday and booked tickets to a number of different shows - it was fortunate that we booked when we did, as many of them were already near fully booked for the entire week.
The first show we went to was in the Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand on Saturday night - world famous magician David Copperfield. We had excellent 'seats' which was actually at a table with another couple right in the center and only three tables back from the stage - one of the best views in the house imho. From what I had seen on tv in the past, David Copperfield was usually pretty reserved and mysterious when performing, but as it turned out he was actually outgoing and talkative in the live show, as well as being a bit of a comedian. He did some amazing illusions, and occasionally got people from the audience to assist by throwing things into the audience and whoever got the item came up on stage. At one point he threw a couple of gherkins - one of them he threw directly to IceQueen, so suddenly IceQueen was up on stage performing with David Copperfield! Yay - my weasel is famous! Ice had to write down a playing card value (three of diamonds) on a big piece of cardboard and he eventually did some involved trick where a sonogram of a baby still in the womb picked out the correct card. Very kewl. Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos at any of the shows, but David Copperfield gave Ice a signed photo of himself as she left the stage.
Sunday was of course Christmas Day, but there really wasn't anything special done to honor the occasion there - pretty much another day in SIn City it seemed. The buffet had a bit of Christmas decoration on one of the desserts I had, but that was about it to be honest. We hung out and walked around some of the nearby hotels and played on the slot machines a bit and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. I think it was this day that we went for a ride on one of the monorails too.
On Tuesday night we went to 'Zumanity' at New York New York. I'm not sure how to describe this show - it was like a cross between the circus and the Moulin Rouge. The show bills itself as a celebration of all forms of human sexuality, and it certainly was - men with women, women with women, men with men, masochism, orgies, dildos, dwarfs (or midgets or little people or whatever the current politically correct term to use is) and elaborate costumes (when they weren't naked) were just some of the features in the show. The show was made up of a series of different acts - mostly a combination of dance and acrobatics - introduced by a drag queen hostess. Some of the acts were quite stunning - the two nearly naked and extremely flexible girls in a large fish bowl and the aerialist act with a topless woman and a little person were among the highlights. There was also a contortionist who, although being kind of out of place in the theme of the show, was freaky to watch - it was almost like the dude was made of rubber. It was an experience. Fortunately we were seated up on the balcony so were not in danger of being dragged on stage at any point.
On Wednesday night we went to see Cirque du Soleil's performance KÀ, and omigod what an absolutely amazing show it was - it was worth going to Vegas just to see that show alone, it was seriously that good. The stage set was beyond description - you'd have to see it to believe it - one of the main parts of the stage was able to rotate into almost any angle - including completely vertical. For a bit of video, you can click here to watch a KÀ TV clip for the production.
I found a review of the show at reviewplays.com which covers parts of the show quite well, so I'll quote a bit from there, along with a few images from that site.
It's almost an understatement to say Cirque du Soleil has reinvented Las Vegas. Surely it has, but it has also reinvented entertainment as it will be known in the 21st-century. In his LA Times review of KÀ, the Cirque's fourth permanent Vegas attraction which just opened at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino earlier this month at a cost of US$165million, Mark Swed said that it "may well be the most lavish production in the history of Western theater."
It's hard to know where to begin to describe KÀ, so let me start with the ending. On the 149-foot high stage of the new $105 million KÀ theatre - or the place where a stage would be if there was one - the show culminates with a majestic fireworks display. On the stage. Inside the hotel.
Where the stage should be in the KÀ Theatre is the place the members of the crew and the company call The Void, a huge smoke-belching gaping hole that descends into the depths of the Vegas desert sands 51 feet below the level of the audience. Two enormous hydraulic steel decks, the Sand Cliff Deck (25 x 50 feet and weighing 80,000 lbs.) and the Tatami Deck (30 x 30 and weighing almost 100,000 lbs.) move at speeds up to 60 feet a second - and often with people executing some outlandish stunt on them. Not only do the decks slide into place over The Void, they then have the capability to rotate 360 degrees and tilt from horizontal into a completely vertical position. This is nowhere more unbelievable than in one massive battle scene, where two entire companies of performers square off to fight, but find themselves slowly becoming perpendicular to the audience.
There are journeys through the icy land of the Yeti-like Mountain Tribe, complete with a snowstorm and a huge tent that transforms into an enormous flying apparatus resembling a prehistoric bird, which then takes off over the audience with the entire tribe onboard when one of the royal kids must flee another attack.
KÀ is also the first Cirque du Soleil production to feature a storyline, following adolescent twins who are separated in a warlike attack upon their idyllic kingdom, sending them fleeing for their lives in opposite directions and through opposite but equally perilous journeys.
In this first image the sister's sailing ship is thrashing through a massive storm, in which the huge, careening vessel (completely manipulated by the artists themselves) is hurtled across the front of the stage while acrobats twirl from the mast and are thrown off with breathtaking leaps into The Void on either side.
After all the characters are lost over the side, the twin sister and her nanny (for lack of a better term) suddenly appear slowly floating down from the highest 149 foot point of the stage, their progress downward accentuated by video projections of bubbles which appear behind them on a curtain of some transparent material - the effect is totally realistic and had us sitting there amazed wondering how the hell they did it. Soon they are rediscovered on the Sand Cliff Deck, buried in 350 cubic feet of granulated cork. Emerging from below the 'sand' are two playful crabs (among other creatures), manned by contortionists bent over backward and walking on their hands:
The following image is one of the many characters in the play - even the characters not wearing elaborate and technical costumes were still made up in painstaking detail.
This show is one of the more amazing things I've witnessed in my life, and if you are ever anywhere near Las Vegas, you must experience this stunning production - I honestly can't state nearly enough just how extraordinarily breathtaking it is. KÀ plays permanently - and probably forever - at the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas.
On Thursday we took a guided tour to the Hoover Dam. It is huge (I don't think they know how to do things any other way in Vegas). One of the major highways out of Vegas travels over the dam - you can just see the cars on top of the dam in this image. They are currently building a 1,000 foot high bridge as an alternative route because the dam is such a prime target for terrorism.
Our tour included a trip deep into the innards of the dam to where the massive generators are. Those turbines generate electricity for a good part of three different states.
The was a weasel there too.
It's a long way down to the 'shallow' side of the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River.
On the way back we stopped in to sample the wares at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Along with the nice hand-made chocolates, they had a groovy garden area outside with paths winding through it and lots of different plants and cactuses or cacti or whatever.
We left Vegas late Friday night and flew back via Washington DC, finally arriving back in New York at about 9:30am on New Years Eve. You're probably wondering about the gambling side of our vacation, considering that's what Vegas is primarily about. We didn't play on the blackjack or poker tables at all - neither of us were willing to throw money away that rapidly. When we did gamble, we spent our time on the slots. At the MGM Grand the slots range from 1¢ per spin (only a few of those) right up to US$500 per spin. Imagine spending $500 per spin - you could easily go through $100,000 in an hour at that rate. Actually, with most of the slots you choose multiple lines to play with each spin, so the 1¢ - $500 is per line, not per spin.. which means some of those top machines could be guzzling $10,000 per spin! Wow.. that's like millions per hour on just one slot machine.. that's just sick. Needless to say we spent most of our time on the less expensive slots - the 1, 2 and 5¢ ones. Believe it or not, we actually came out a couple of hundred dollars on top. We had been down a little during most of the week, although I spent a couple of days running off one $20 note before finally losing it, then we both won comparatively substantial amounts in the last day or two, which covered what we had spent and then some, so that was a bonus.
So that was basically our holiday. It was a great week and we never left each other's side and loved every minute of it. Awesome. Thank you to my sweetness and light Ice for a wonderful trip.
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