Night of the Lepus

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Happy Zombie Jesus Day everybody!!! Sacrilegious? Yeah… but still. Easter is easily the most confusing holiday in my opinion… and I’m sure that I’ve elaborated on it before… so skip to what we did to celebrate the reanimation of our Lord & Savior. In traditional fashion, we skipped church and went to the Aunties’ house to color Easter eggs, eat barbecue (the body of Christ), and drink beer (blood of Christ). Here are some pictures…

 

I also got a wonderful gift from Izzy... STUFFED ANKY!!!

Over the weekend, I watched a few movies that I had been putting off, but finally got around to. First up was “Z for Zachariah” which stars Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor & Chris Pine… and that is it. For this movie, after some sort of radiation disaster has happened, most of civilization has been destroyed. The movie starts in the scenic hills of (I think) Pennsylvania where we find a young farmer named Anna (Robbie) who has been by herself for some time (maybe 2-3 years? They’re pretty vague on it) but she’s farming, hunting, and surviving with her dog. Then one day, she finds a mysterious gentleman in some sort of makeshift hazmat suit name Mr. Loomis (Ejiofor). Being the first person she’s seen in years… and he seems like a nice guy, she invites him to stay and they work together to keep surviving… and a relationship grows… and then, another stranger with some radiation poisoning named Caleb (Pine) shows up… and a love triangle forms… and breeds jealousy… but to what end? I really liked this movie. It’s very simple, very beautifully shot… and the characters are easy on the eyes, even in this strapped down kind of story. Character development is there… performances are great… even the pacing is pretty good for being, essentially a very brief story. I absolutely LOVED this movie until the last few minutes… but even then with a bit of an awkward ending, I still highly recommend it. Check this movie out! See Margot Robbie with some acting chops & not just a pretty face (and the rest of her)!

 

Next up was “Muppets Most Wanted” starring Ricky Gervais and a load of celebrity cameos, but essentially the sequel to last year’s “The Muppets” and the 8^th full-length feature Muppets movie. In this one, it picks up from the end of the latest movies where the Muppets have come back in a BIG way and have a hit show… and now are looking into signing an agent (Gervais) and go around the world on the world tour… which has Kermit a little hesitant because they just got back together. Oh… and if you don’t know who the Muppets are, I pity you. Check them out. Anyway, the agent turns out to be a bad guy (his last name was Badguy) and partners with the greatest burglar in the world, a Russian frog named Constantine… who breaks out of jail, and they basically frame Kermit so HE goes to jail AS Constantine… and yeah, it’s a Muppets movie. It’s pretty funny at times… and lots of musical numbers thrown in… Tina Fey is a Russian gulag warden… Ty Burrell is a bumbling French Interpol agent… it’s just fun & ridiculous. If you like the Muppets, check it out. If you have kids, check it out. If not, then it’s probably pointless on you… there are a lot of references to the monotony of sequels IN THE MOVIE. I liked it though.

 

Lastly, the next episode of our Everything I Learned from Movies Podcast (eiflm.podbean.com) will also have an Easter holiday theme. This week, we’ll discuss a movie that just kinda hopped up on IMDb when we put in Easter and… no, it’s not a zombie movie (though it was definitely considered). The movie is 1972’s “Night of the Lepus!” and is a horror movie starring Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForrest Kelley and others... and it’s about giant mutant bunnies taking over the Southwest. This… was… amazing! Currently streaming on Amazon Prime… so check it out & then check us out on the podcast. Until then, have a great weekend everybody!!!

Triumphant Return to Vegas

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Wow… the Vegas Trip was a complete success… in spite of my credit card company screwing the pooch TWICE!!! But yeah, here are some of the highlights…

 

Thursday – Izzy & I flew in around noon, checked into the hotel… and then walked over to the Venetian for lunch at Johnny Rocket’s and then we spent the next two hours chatting with Tina at Sin City Brewing’s bar location there. We tried all six of their offerings at the location (Oktoberfest, Lager, Amber, Hefeweizen, IPA & Double IPA) and far and away our favorites were the Oktoberfest & the Stout. I highly recommend checking it out… and if you act right, maybe Tina will throw you a little discount, that you can then show your appreciation by tipping her well. Go check it out…

 

 

Next up was another bar called Public House at The Venetian which was recommended to us by Big Ben & Lone Cicerone. This location was more… hmm… fancy? The beers were at LEAST twice as much… but they did have a great selection of all kinds of beers from around the world… including Wasatch Brewing’s Black O’Lantern which I had. The bar staff was not nearly as bubbly as Sin City Brewing… but still nice. I’m sure it’s great if you have the time & the money… but we stopped by for just a drink… and then went back to Sin City Brewing to top off our growler with some Oktoberfest. Still… check it out… their selection is great!

The rest of the night, we mostly wandered the Strip in search of smashed pennies for Izzy’s collection & all the cool things that Vegas has to offer…

 

Then we ended up at Ellis Island Casino & Brewery on Koval just off the Strip… and let me tell you, this is probably our favorite location with respect to value. Now it’s extremely dated by Strip standards as I assume they just won’t sell their plot or something… but we really dug their location & offerings. For example, that Thursday night they had 2-for-1 pizza, great cheap beer brewed in-house, full racks of ribs for well under $20 (more on those later), the best karaoke in town, and plenty of old locals to chat with including several Elvis impersonators. Definitely check this place out! Or not… and we’ll just enjoy it. Oh… and the beer was great… and even full price is less than half what you’ll find on the Strip.

 

Friday – We slept in a bit… and then more wandering the Strip for pennies & to show Izzy some of the casinos on the southern end of the Strip… and we had a few drinks in New York New York (overpriced for plastic cup beer) and then had drinks & appetizers at Tap at MGM Grand. Here are some pictures…

 

That evening also included the Arrival of the Wingman… but it was later in the evening, so we went to pick up dinner (pizza at Ellis Island down the street) and upon our return… apparently the locking mechanism on our door malfunctioned when Izzy went left the room for a moment to get ice or something… and they couldn’t get it to open back up… even after engineering tried a few things… including taking off the lock… and then they called TWO locksmiths to come… and they pretty much had to take the door apart… so yeah, we were locked out of the room for a good five hours or so with all of our stuff in there. They were incredibly accommodating & incredibly nice… and in order to make amends for our evening of… honestly what we were going to do anyway, they basically gave us free drinks at the bar while we waited. We were completely respectful of their offer though… so we only drank from the top shelf. Let the free drinks BEGIN!!!

 

Saturday – So… because of our complimentary access to the bar for about five hours… we woke up pretty late with little memory of after midnight (time travel?) but eventually we got up and… went shopping at the Outlets on our way to the next hotel. Also on the way though, some great southern lunch at Lola’s Louisiana Kitchen, a great little place to get your po’ boy and jambalaya and grits on. Here are some pictures…

 

That night we checked into the Plaza which overlooks the Fremont Street Experience, which is basically a smaller-scale portion of the Strip… and the prices are kind of stuck back in the 50’s too. Yes, the homeless are about the same… and the clientele there are more of the Walmart variety… but hey, those are my people (the latter anyway) and you get all the gambling, drinks, entertainment and at a fraction of the price. Here are some pictures…

 

At the opposite end of Fremont Street is newcomer to the craft beer scene Banger Brewing, which has been around for just about two years. After sampling some of their product, we were given a tour by brewer Tommy… and it’s a pretty sweet place. Very similar to the kind of brewery that I’d like to run one day (with Izzy, of course). Check them out! Some of our favorites are El Heffe (jalapeno wheat beer) and Morning Joe (coffee kolsch… yeah, it’s a thing apparently), but all of their beers were pretty damn good.

 

 

Speaking of deals on Fremont Street, we got some great $2 Street Tacos next door & enjoyed them at Banger Brewing…

 

… and then when my lady wants steak… she gets Steak AND Lobster at Tony Roma’s… as long as it’s under $12 plus tip…

 

Sunday – Sunday morning, we went to watch the morning football game at Ellis Island Casino and grab some breakfast there… why? BEERS WERE $1 EACH DURING THE GAMES… and breakfast was also less than $7 per person… and here’s what you get… probably the best chicken fried steak of my life BTW…

 

After checking in at The Cosmopolitan… with this view…

 

We headed over to a new feature on the Strip called The High Roller, which is a 550-foot high Ferris Wheel similar to the Eye in London… where you get beautiful views of the area… and you have the option of having an open bar for a few extra bucks. Sounds sweet, right? We said f**k that & brought our own drinks for the half-hour ride around the wheel… in a private car!!! Boom!!!

 

  

We followed it up with some drinks at the Yard House at the base of the wheel… great beer selection on tap… and the food was pretty good too…

For dinner, we went BACK to Ellis Island Casino again… for an $18 full rack of ribs…

 

Monday – We set out for buffet at the M Resort, here are some pictures of the buffet…

 

We were trying to work in the buffet before the Wingman had to go home… but we were in line for a while… we ate… and we were running a little late… and not feeling the least bit bad about it. After a discussion with the rental car company, The Wingman ended up staying ONE MORE NIGHT!!! WOO HOO!!!

 

In celebration, we hit the Strip again… and this time, we brought The Yardstick!!! TWO OF THEM over the course of the night…

 

We also got some tickets for something… I was kind of questioning when I saw the advertisement… called Zombie Burlesque. Now, in years past, I had seen ads for Bite, which was a vampire burlesque… and it just sounded horrible… and from what I understand, it was basically just a lame strip show with some fangs & fake blood added. So I had my doubts… but I’m here to tell you… go check out this show! It’s actually a raunchy, funny & sexy variety show kind of from the 1950’s era… just starring zombie characters. Don’t worry, it’s not the super gross-out kind of zombies… more like dancers with some makeup that makes them look a little more emaciated than usual. I highly recommend it…

I think they were shooting Fast & Furious 8 or whatever they're up to... they had the streets and the Aria kinda shut down to traffic...

Tuesday – This was the morning that we flew back to reality… but it was an AMAZING weekend!!! I’ve missed hanging with Wingman… and even had some great alone time with Izzy… and the whole time was with my former mistress Vegas… so yeah, amazing trip! Go check out Vegas!!! Especially the Ellis Island Casino!!! Have a great day everybody!!!