Many years ago, my ex-roommate from college, who became a NASA astronaut, invited me to his shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral. Without giving it much thought, I declined because I was busy at work and I thought I’d have another chance later in his career. What was I thinking? It turned out to be a once in a lifetime chance that I missed and have regretted. What has this to do with the Michael Jackson memorial? I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

So instead of selling the tickets, I decided to go with a friend of mine. I’m very glad that I went to the memorial. Seeing it on TV is one thing, but being in a building with over 10,000 people is something else. At times, it was so quiet that you can hear a sneeze. Indeed, it turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience for me.

As I stated before, I’m not a huge Michael Jackson fan. However, I grew up during the period when he was indeed the King of Pop and I have a lot of memories from those days. Hearing his music and watching his videos on the screen brought back a lot of memories. Hearing some of the people talk about Michael Jackson as a person was an eye opener for me. No matter what you think about his legal issues, he was a remarkable person with enormous talent.

One big surprise for me was how I felt after Rev. Al Sharpton gave his memorial speech. I often don’t agree with his politics and how he mixes it as a Reverend. However, his speech was from the heart and now I can clearly see why so many people drink his Kool-Aid. Without any prompters or papers, he delivered a moving speech for the family. If you have only seen clips on TV, try to see the entire event from start to finish.

It was amazing that AEG was able to put this memorial together in such a short amount of time. I can only imagine how good Michael Jackson’s concert would have been.

Over the years, I saw how disfunctional the Jackson family seemed to be in the media and felt they deserved what they got. But on this day, they seemed to come together and for a moment, I felt genuine empathy for the pain they were going through. In a strange way, I think Michael’s death will heal some of the pain from the past and perhaps the family can move on with their lives.

As soon as I picked up my car from the repair shop, I drove over to Dodger Stadium to pickup the Michael Jackson memorial tickets for Tuesday. The way they have it setup, you just show your printout and you never have to get out of your car. It’s like a drive-thru ticket pickup. The first booth checks and scans the printout, the second guy gives you your wristbands (and puts one on you), and the last guy gives you your 2 tickets. You’re out of there in about a minute.

Too bad they don’t allow pictures and video at the event. I hope they let me take my phone in there. I’ll post pictures to my photobucket account from the event.

Even though I’m not a super Michael Jackson fan, I decided to sign up for the free tickets to his memorial service at the Staple Center on Tuesday.  Somehow, I got lucky and got an email a few hours ago telling me that I was selected and that I have to go pick up my tickets tomorrow at Dodger Stadium.

Now, I have to decide if I should go or sell the tickets. I see some tickets going for $5,000 in ebay. That’s a lot of money. But it’s also a once in a lifetime event. Hmmm.

I’ll let you know tomorrow what I decided to do.

Switchblade Kitty from left to right: Heidi Shepherd, Carla Harvey, Kelly Cole, and Gabriella DeMarco.

Alcohol + Hard Rock + Nakid Chicks = Incendiary Show

Check out this group at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California on Monday nights.

Update: Switchblade Kitty is no longer playing at the Roxy. They will be playing at another location in April. Stay tuned.

Update 4/3/2009:
Starting April 11, 2009, Switchblade Kitty will be performing at Dragonfly every Saturday night.  Be there if you dare!

All photos by Paul Hart.

After an absence for 10 years, I will be returning to CES (the Consumer Electronic Show) and the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) in January 2009.  Even though I haven’t been in the electronics industry for many years now, you may have noticed from this website, gadgets are my life.  So, I’ve decided it was time to return to my roots.

Of course, there’s also the added incentive of knowing some new adult talent who will be at AEE.  In my fantasy, she’s going to hook me up with some of her co-workers.  Then, I woke up from my dreams.

At CES, I’ll be looking at any and all small HD camcorders that record on any solid state media, spy cameras, new cool cell phones, stuff for my PS3, and anything else that gives me a gadget woody.

I will be reporting directly from the show starting January 8th.  Stay tuned.

Pokerstars.com is giving away free entries to the WSOP 2008 main event.  What’s the catch?  Well, you have to come in the top 50 out of 5,000 in your first level tournament.  The blinds go up every 5 minutes.  Once you do that, then you get to enter the next free tournament, where you must come in the top 2 to win your entry. Also, you can only enter once a week.

If you’re interested in this, login to your pokerstars account, click on “Events,” then “WSOP,” then click on one of the “WSOP $1M Giveaway: Round 1 Freeroll.”

If you don’t mind paying, there are other ways you can get in.  There’s a $33 entry tournament where they give away at least 1 WSOP entry.  The closest I got was heads-up where I was all-in with pocket Queens against AK .  The flop brought two with low cards, and you can guess the rest.  Damn!  So close.

So far, it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it to the WSOP this year.

 

Back again for day 2 of the Gaming Life Expo to see pro poker players. Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized picture.

First pictures is of 10 time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan signing autographs. During his break from one booth, he went over to yet another booth for more signing. There was a long line at both booths. Here at the WSOP, the poker pros are treated like big time celebrities.

The next picture is a booth for a Xbox 360 WSOP game. There didn’t seem to be too much interest. I think the people at the Expo want to see live people.

“Real” celebrity Jennifer Tilly and boyfriend and poker player Phil “Unabomber” Laak shown playing on one of the computerized poker tables. Phil gets knocked out first with AQ.

At the Seamless Gentlemen’s Club’s dunk booth, one of 3 real dancers who work there looking scared about getting dunked into the water.  A few seconds after this picture, she goes int0 the cold and murky water.

One of the Pro Player Drinks girls poses for me, only after I agreed to taste the drink. It tastes like orange soda. Hmmm. Energy drink specifically marketed only to poker players. I don’t think so. Nice try though.

Olympic Garden girls posing on their booth’s stage. Nice shot, right?

Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari signing autographs. I don’t know him, but he didn’t seem to want to be there all that much. Maybe that’s the way he always is. He did comply with all the stupid requests from people. One guy wanted his picture taken with Antonio holding 7-2 offsuit and the guy holding pocket aces.

Phil Gordon playing against Phil Laak on a heads-up computerized poker table. I read Phil’s “Green Book” that my friend Deana gave me. Good info and a quick read.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson giving an interview in the halls. He was wearing a Matrix type black trench coat.

Hall of Famer, “Amerillo Slim” Preston in the halls. Not sure if he was playing or promoting something but he joked that I could use this picture like a scare scrow to get rid of birds.

One of the few hot ladies of poker, Vanessa Rousso signing autographs at a booth. She’s also super smart and graduated from Duke in only 2 and a half years and I think just finished law school, according to her myspace page. How does she finish law school and play pro poker, and do promotions? I have no idea. She’s dating Chad “Downtown” Brown, a fellow poker player and commentator. She’s done pretty well for herself.

Last note related to the Expo. I was playing a live game at the MGM and met Ron, the president of Lightning Poker which has a booth at the Expo. They also make those computerized tables and Ron told me that they will have a few of their units at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

I really think these computerized tables will become the norm in the future. Old timers won’t like it but the online 20 something players are going to love it. The casinos save money by not having to have chips, dealers, or cards. Players won’t have to tip the dealer or deal with mistakes, or people playing out of turn. But for now, the units might be too expensive, even though they are leasing them to the casinos. When the price goes down, this will be the future of live poker playing.

As promised, it’s not going to be all WSOP reporting. Let’s see what’s going on at the “Gaming Life Expo.”

To demonstrate that this expo isn’t all about gaming, and they have indeed added girls to the roster, Saphire Gentlemen’s Club had Lexi (shown here) dancing on a micro-stage. Another dancer named Summer was giving away 2-for-1 drink passes.

On a less purient nature, Mark Seif (pro player, and now commentator) was representing the PPT booth.

At the same booth, the more exciting news is G4‘s Layla Kayleigh (she does the “Feed” on “Attack of the Show”) is the new World Poker Tour hostess for 2008.  She’s a hottie with a British accent, and very possibly lesbian or bi. Nice. Don’t want to start rumors but I’ve been around the block and I know these things. Well, okay, I’m just making it up but one can dream. With heels, she must be about 5′ 4″ at the most. A real spinner.

There were more than one booth with computerized poker tables. Hollywood Park, and now Hustler have these but I’m not sure they are talking off yet. I have to think that the casinos would love to have them because it would eliminate the dealers, which must be a large part of their overhead. One company custom makes them for the home. I was too scared to ask for the price. No way I could afford one.

There were a bunch of booths giving away poker magazines, selling books, posters, seats, pillows, and of course, playing cards, poker chips and on and on. The only mild standout was a poker dealer button that has a built in tournament timer with an LCD on it for only $15.95.  I just use my laptop but I guess if you don’t have a watch with a timer, or don’t have a laptop, this might be for you.

The only thing that I actually bought with real hard earned (or poker playing) money was this “Hold’em Shades” from bestpokerstuff.com.  No, it’s not sunglasses.  It’s a pair of poker glasses. There is no dark shading, just flash mirror coating. I tried them out and it’s what I’ve been looking for and never found. Also, the side is thick so the guy sitting next to you can’t see your eyes either. I think I’ll use this at the WSOP main event final table.

Apparently, there was this same expo last year but I never even heard of it until this year. They changed the theme a little to add girls and gadgets to the gambling. Wait a second. This expo is the same theme as my blog! I guess that means…

From the exhibitor list for this year, it looks like a few Vegas strip clubs will be representing their wares. Among the listed are Library, Olympic Garden, Saphire, Seamless, and Treasures. On the floor plan, there was a “Rhino Vegas Basketball,” but I don’t think that’s the Spearmint Rhino. Too bad.

I don’t get the impression that it will be like the AVN expo or even the old CES, back in the day but I’m ready to see what stuff they have since I’ll be at the World Series Main event anyway.

Look for my double report of this expo and the goings on at the World Series of Poker 2007 Main event.

Gaming Life Expo 2007
July 5-8, 2007
Rio Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada