Month: February 2007

Chinese New Year in Vegas

I guess what’s unlucky for you is lucky for me, right? I read this bizarre excerpt about “Las Vegas turns red for Chinese New Year”

There are 31 luxury villas at The Mansion in MGM Grand, but the numbers go from one to 34, bypassing unlucky 8, 18 and 28.

“Seven’s all right. Eight. You don’t want to look at eight. You don’t see eights in any of our villas,” [MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni] said.

Someone should tell Mr. Lanni that the number eight is the luckiest number for an Asian gambler to have. The number eight stands for prosperity and wealth. Only players with million dollar accounts are invited to stay at The Mansion. Unless this is on purpose, although I’d hardly think the house needs to jinx its players!

But it’s true that Chinese are pretty serious about gambling (there is even a subgenre of Hong Kong movies all about gambling its flamboyant lifestyle; see the “God of Gambling” series); you’ll see quite a few Chinese high rollers hunkered down in Pai Gow poker this time of year.

Year of the Pig

Valentine’s ideas for profanely rich people

1. Say it with flowers, or to be more precise, eight foot tall Extreme Roses, freakishly long stemmed flowers that will set you back $250 for a dozen. But you know what they say about men with big roses.

2. Have dinner at The Dome, State Tower Hotel, Bangkok for their “Epicurean Masters of the World” event. 10 courses, 10 wines, six Michelin 3-star chefs, $25,000 USD. They say the shortest way to your lover’s heart is through their stomach, and after you’ve stuffed them with Tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belon oysters, surely a glass of priceless ’59 Chateau Mouton Rothschild won’t be the only thing he/she’ll be kissing tonight.

3. Book the Penthouse at The Setai, Miami. It features a private butler, Asian-style decor, and flat-screen TVs in every room. And if you end up in the doghouse, that’s cool, because it there are plenty of places to sleep with its four bedrooms and two living rooms!

Vista: Not fully hatched, media still insists on counting

New York Times is calling Windows Vista’s sales to be more weaksauce than Wow:

“Despite reportedly committing close to $500 million on its Vista marketing worldwide, Microsoft did not generate nearly the excitement last week as it did 12 years ago when the company introduced its 1995 operating system.”

Of course, in 1995, New York Times ironically painted Windows 95 sales with the same doom ‘n gloom:

Microsoft Corporation’s Windows 95 operating system is not gaining adherents as rapidly as previously predicted, because of the continued success of older versions of the Windows system…

It’s true, Vista is having some shortcomings in the driver compatibility department, and major software stability, but really, it’s an operating system, not tickets to see Justin Timberlake. People will get around to grabbing a copy – eventually.

Future, short, sweet

So I’m at the new gentrified Gladstone Hotel watching Future Shorts Toronto, a screening of short, amateur film. This month’s theme was conflict and war.

You can watch some of the films here:

  • Mark Cutforth’s Shaolin Delivery Boy. It’s very, very funny.
  • Simon Robson and Knife Party’s What Barry Says, political commentary on the US’s industrial military complex.
  • La vie d’un chien, When a scientist invents an elixir that temporarily changes a human into a canine, the government fights to ban the drug, and the fight for freedom begins. Think of it as La Jetee, but with furries!

Intermission music was provided by this guy and gal with a sitar and didgeridoo respectively. I think I’ve seen him play at Runnymede Station. They’re pretty good regardless.