>> The Switch
>> Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
>> The Other Guys
>> Salt
>> Inception
>> Cyrus
>> The Last Airbender
>> Grown Ups
>> Toy Story 3
>> The Human Centipede

Opening 9.10.10
>> Resident Evil: Afterlife (R) [trailer]
>> Bran Nue Dae (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Heartbreaker (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> I'm Still Here (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Legendary (Limited) (PG-13) [trailer]
>> Lovely, Still (Limited) (PG) [trailer]
>> The Romantics (Limited) (PG-13)
>> The Virginity Hit (Limited) (R) [trailer]

Coming To DVD/Blu-Ray 9.7.10
>> Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season [buy]
>> The Office: Season Six [buy]
>> Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season [buy]
>> Jillian Michaels: Shred-It With Weights [buy]
>> Criminal Minds: Fifth Season [buy]

Las Vegas: Satan Vacations Here
by Victoria Alexander
August 29, 2005

McCambridge the Mentalist at Rampart’s, Skintight at Harrah’s, The Triple George Grill Opening; The Amazing Johnathan at Sahara, Bite at Stratosphere, Serial Killers Wives Are Idiots, and more...

Mentalism Unleashed. Since we are friends with The Amazing Kreskin and always get Christmas cards from him (remember that Kreskin UFO Call Down in Las Vegas?), we were eager to see mentalist Gerry McCambridge. Saturday night we went to The Rampart Casino at The Resort at Summerlin to see the 8 P.M. free show. Through various memory techniques, body language, hypnosis, linguistics, statistics, law of averages, non-verbal communication, magic, acting, theater, and stand up comedy, McCambridge dazzles his audiences. I was told to get there early as they overbook and people start lining up early. “Mentalism is the art of riding the fine line between intuition and illusion,” said McCambridge. “How much of each I use in a particular routine is my secret.”

I know quite a few mediums who could learn a few things from McCambridge. My friend Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., author of “The Afterlife Experiments,” suggested I become the “Last Name Medium” since I always wonder why my friends who are well-known mediums are never able to get dead people to recall their last names. When I start talking to dead people, I will insist the Dead recall their last names if they want to tell loved ones – as they always do - “I’m okay. Don’t worry about me.” The Dead can’t remember something they had their whole lives – their names! But McCambridge figured it out – at least with living people. He knew the full names of several random audience members. The Rampart Casino at The Resort at Summerlin is located within the JW Marriott Resort, at 221 N. Rampart Blvd. in Las Vegas.

Skintight Is Right. Sunday night we took in Harrah’s topless revue show, Skintight. I was surprised that the show featured male singers and dancers. The stars of the show are singer Daryl Ross and Playboy’s Shannon O’Keefe. Ross has a powerful voice and strong presence. Of course, O’Keefe is gorgeous and a terrific dancer, especially in one particular dance number where she uses two polls held by male dancers. But, it is obvious she is lip-synching. That doesn’t appear to bother the gentlemen in the audience. By the way, several men are brought on stage by the topless dancers, so if you don’t want to be embarrassed, don’t sit too close to the front and sit in the middle of the row. The feather costumes were impressive. Skintight is performed nightly in the Clint Holmes Theater at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino located at 3475 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109. Show times are Monday through Wednesday and Saturday at 10:30 pm, Friday at 10:00 pm and at midnight, Sunday at 7:30 pm and at 10:30 pm.

Serial Killer Wives Are All Lobotomized. They are clueless idiots. I started following the BTK website, catchbtk.com, after spending a lot of time on the definitive Jack The Ripper website, casebook.org. By the way, to join the JTR website, I had to mail the editor a signed Terms of Agreement form.

Paula Rader had a stable 34-year marriage to The BTK Killer. I don’t believe Mrs. Rader was clueless and neither should you. Confessed serial killer Dennis Rader kept mementos, photos of his victims in various staged poses, and photos of himself dressed up in his female victim’s clothes in his office, camper and small suburban home. Rader had photos of himself tied up and hanging from a tree. Who tied him up? Who took the photos of Rader bound and masked on the floor in his basement? Rader kept meticulous files he planned to eventually scan and digitally store. Containers kept in a closet and elsewhere at his home also held what Rader called "hit kits" — bags with rubber gloves, rope, tape, handcuffs and bandanas.

Paula and Dennis Rader lived together in a small house for 34 years. She never noticed a thing was wrong with her husband who admitted in televised court proceedings to taking a dead victim in his car to church and posing her there. He put a mask over the faces of unattractive victims before masturbating on them. Paula never knew, while living in a modest house with a man for 34 years, about her husband’s weird sexual habits that he actually carried out with dead people.

Why are Serial Killer Wives so dumb? It is hard for anyone who is married to believe the wives of serial killers are oblivious to their creepy husband’s habits. Consider Herb Baumeister, the Indiana serial killer who strangled plenty of gay men and buried seven of them in his front lawn. His son found a skeleton on the property. His wife, Juliana, told police she believed Baumeister's peculiar explanation: the skeleton was an inherited anatomical model that belonged to his father, a physician. Herb, well known in Indianapolis gay clubs, apparently fooled only his wife about his sexual preference! Carole Hott, who was married to the serial killer/torturer John Wayne Gacy, would ask about the rotting smell coming from the basement. She accepted his explanation that a broken refrigerator had turned meat rancid. The smell was coming from the 33 bodies Gacy was storing downstairs.

BTK resurfaced in 2004 after 30 years of silence with a letter to The Wichita Eagle that included photos of a 1986 strangling victim and a photocopy of her missing driver's license. The break in the case came earlier this year after a computer diskette the killer had sent was traced to Rader's church, where he once served as president. However, there were reports that Rader’s daughter provided a DNA sample to the police that linked her father to BTK’s crimes. That story was amended to a rather legally implausible explanation: The police obtained a DNA sample from Rader’s daughter’s GYN visit. So does this mean that there is no such thing as the privacy of medical records?

If you ever wanted to see crime scene photos of serial killers – they are gruesome – there is a website dedicated to the horror: (Photo of JTK’s Sept. 30, 1888 victim Elizabeth Stride)

Grumpy Old Rock Star. Mick Jagger, the 62-year-old frontman for The Rolling Stones, said he found the constant sniping aimed at his band - formed in 1962 and often cruelly referred to as the Strolling Bones - amusing. Adding up the four bandmates' ages was a 'mathematical feat beyond most people', he said. Mick failed to note these morons are capable of paying $472.50 for a ticket to a Rolling Stones concert.

The Rolling Stones will bring their “A Bigger Bang World Tour 2005/2006” to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Friday, Nov. 18. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are priced at $472.50, $367.50, and $262.50. Why we mock the Stones is beyond Mick’s comprehension. What is so funny is not that Mick and Keith are wizen rock stars who won’t let go gracefully and enjoy their wealth, but that they still have to starve themselves to 130 lbs. like 18 year old heroin-chic rock stars, dye their gray hair, and prance around without shirts on. Sure, the Stones are a historic band, but, if you didn’t see them in 1975 you blew it. Some of us do not want to see skinny old men dancing shirtless. (Photo of Mick on left. Special mention: Iggy Pop.)

Stratosphere’s “Bite” Is Las Vegas’s Best Topless Rock Show. We went to the show Monday night and went back Saturday night with guests in from Australia. I broke my own rule: On Monday we had seats right in front of the stage and decided not to move. There was an announcement that the audience was expected to participate in the show but there could be no touching of the dancers. “Bite” is the “story” of Lord Vampire’s search for a perfect mate. The show is a terrific mix of topless dancing, fantastic acrobatics, magic, and rock. The show’s story ends with a well-endowed innocent young lady transformed into the Lord’s “Queen of the Night.”

The dancers are young and impressive, but it is the choreography and selection of music (hard rock with slices of opera!) that really elevates “Bite” over other, more traditional, “topless” revues. And, of course, the aerialist duo, Cees & Cathy, flying so close over us – was sensational! Also impressive is the performer who uses a hula hoop and then flies around the audience on long sheets of material hanging from the ceiling. “Bite” is located in the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino’s Broadway Showroom (ground level) at 2000 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89104. Tickets are $40.95 per person. Show times are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 10:30 pm. Dark on Thursdays.

Triple George Grill VIP Opening. Las Vegas’s Triple George Grill across from the Lady Luck Casino Hotel had a VIP media party Thursday night. Chef Ro Fernandez oversees the restaurant, which has seats for 54 in the dining area, a piano lounge, and 36-seat bar and lunch counter. This was one of the most impressive restaurant openings we have been to with Filet Mignon, Shrimp George, and Black Pei Mussels abundantly served (as well as George’s Signature Cocktails). Triple George is one of three new venues that have opened on the revitalized 3rd Street Downtown. There is now a Hogs & Heifers biker bar and Celebrity, a cabaret/drag show and dance club. Soon the street will have a blues bar and jazz club. I’ll be checking out Celebrity in the next few weeks! 3rd Street Downtown is angling to be Las Vegas’s SoHo district – and we need one! Triple George has a masculine mahogany décor, seductive lighting, and an excellent location, right between a biker bar and a gay dance club. A walk on 3rd Street Downtown and all entertainment predilections can be indulged in one evening. Triple George Grill, 201 N. 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV.

The Photo That Will Kill A Political Dynasty. After Arnold Schwarzenegger was crowned Governor of California, there was chatter about amending the U.S. Constitution to allow a non-natural born American to run for President. Having married into America’s royal family, Arnold wants to put his last name into the history books. If we won’t change the Constitution for Arnold, there is always his son. But now that I have seen a truly vulgar photo, clearly Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1970s, I can predict with absolute certainty that Arnold will never become a Senator. His political dynasty just collapsed. If you want to see the photo, go to gossiplist.com. Be warned it is ugly and cruel to women. Maria, you have attained your desired revenge. I applaud you. You have punished your family!

King Kong Redux. The trailer for Peter Jackson’s KING KONG looks terrific. I wonder if they are going to address big Kong’s (lack of) toilet habits and gorilla smell? Can you imagine the size of KK’s feces? l haven’t gone on an African safari yet, but I have spent time around the natural habitats of animals in Antarctica, South America, Nepal, and Tibet. Animals smell horrible and wherever they roam they do not use designated areas (neither does most of mankind in under-developed countries). It sort of puts a knot in the romance of King Kong, doesn’t it? (Photo of director Peter Jackson, back then and now.)

The Amazing Johnathan at The Sahara Las Vegas. The Congo Room was packed on Friday night. The brilliant show is dangerously funny (I learned some things about men’s solo sex practices I hadn’t known). I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Johnathan has a well-choreographed show that is all sly comedy and sometimes magic. Johnathan is also featuring what he calls “foam magic.” I believe him – it’s going to be bigger than cutting a woman in half. Johnathan has an assistant, Psychic Tanya, who takes his rather cruel abuse with aplomb. There is some magic, but it is Johnathan that is a stunning performer with perfect timing. Yes, he has a bizarre sense of humor and is mean-spirited. What’s not to love about this show? The Amazing Johnathan is the pure antidote to the theatrical magic of David Copperfield and Lance Burton. He does strike a few magic poses just to prove he can do them. I highly recommend this show.

The Amazing Johnathan Show performances are at 10 p.m. nightly, dark Thursdays, in the Congo Room at the Sahara Hotel & Casino. Tickets are $44.95 plus tax for general admission and $54.95 plus tax for the Golden Circle.

My Weekly Reading List. Radar’s Sept/Oct 2005 issue has a cover story on Tom Cruise (as Saint Sebastian) titled: “Risky Business: The Untold Story of Scientology’s Movie-Star Martyr.” The revitalized Radar is much better than the horrible OK! Magazine debut that featured tons of photos used up by other tabloids weeks ago. OK! Magazine is already getting slammed as having special relationships with its cover models (debut cover model Jessica Simpson) insuring nice press coverage and no-damning “She’s Dying of Anorexia!” covers. There is a fresh rumor that Radar spent $300,000 on insider information for the Scientology story. At least someone got to recoup their auditing fees.

If you would like to contact me about this column, or be included on my private distribution list for a weekly reminder, just email me at Masauu@aol.com.

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