Ellis Island. Last year, Don, Jamie and I found Ellis Island at the suggestion of a taxi driver, and the legend of $2 beers and awful karaoke began. We spent one night there, and then quite some cash at the next door 7-11, and vowed to come back this year. Unfortunately, Don left before he and I were able to make it there… which wound up being one day too soon.
See, Monday night ended with an after-party of CineVegas-style karaoke at Ellis Island, and boy was it a blast. But more on that later…
Earlier in the day, I made my way over to the Palms to see “Memorial Day” and “Where I Stand.” The former was one of the more challenging, uncomfortable film-watching experiences I’ve had in a very long time. More in the review, but essentially it is a film that I am happy I saw, but also have no interest in suggesting to anyone else, as it is too intense, in my opinion, for most.
“Where I Stand,” on the other hand, was an amazing documentary, and I was quite impressed. I didn’t know much about Hank Greenspun save his family’s relation to CineVegas, and I was more than impressed in hearing about the life he lived. If “Citizen Kane” was Hearst’s legacy, this is Greenspun’s… and I’m very curious how Rupert Murdoch’s is going to roll out.
After those flicks, Jeff Otto from Reelz Channel and I made our way to the Wynn for the fountain screening of Murakami’s “Planting the Seeds.” Pics below, but basically this event summed up everything you need to know about CineVegas: swanky venue, amazing screen floating in the middle of a lake and the film that screened was about a couple rabbit-like critters shitting on watermelon seeds to make them grow. Yeah, you understand that and you’ll understand why I LOVE CineVegas…
Jeff Otto rocked the fancy drink, and even offered to pay me $50 if I would eat an entire tray of crab cake puffs that were being passed around by the various waitstaff. I was all for it, but they ran short on supply before I could make my champion move. Probably for the best, though I could’ve used the $50…
This was the part of the movie where Kiki the bunny-thing took a s**t…
…and this is the scary head that rose from the water and sang that song from the end of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” You know the one, bow bow buh buh buh buh bow bow. Needless to say, but being said anyway, they should’ve passed out tabs of acid prior to this event so that the full effect could be felt.
After the screening, it was time to go party at Blush nightclub and… nothing too exciting to report about that place. It was a nightclub in Vegas so, you know, done that. The real fun was when I was leaving Blush and a rumor about karaoke at Ellis Island was finally officially confirmed. The evening was just getting started…
Ellis Island rocks, as I mentioned before, and it rocked that much more being there with all my friends from CineVegas. As of right now, Mike Plante has some disturbing video of me dancing to “Superfreak,” and Kate Payne took this wonderful picture of me mocking the guy with the gravelly throat trying to “sing” “Jack and Diane”…
Yes, I am pretending that I’m using one of those throat box machines, mainly because, well… that’s what the guy singing sounded like. If he was the low point, there were higher points, such as Dentler rocking some Prince…
This spirited rendition of… you know, I can’t remember…
Childress and I looked on with both amazement and joy…
Then the real capper of the evening hit when Mike Plante and Kate Payne brought the house down with their duet of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe”…
After the karaoke fun was done, I made my way to the 7-11 next door for a Gatorade and some chili-cheese dogs, before deciding that, due to a lack of cabs and an impatient need to get back to the hotel, I would instead walk to the Planet Hollywood… which took me about 20 minutes. Not too bad, I’ve got late night walking stories for almost every film festival I’ve attended, and unlike Sundance it wasn’t freezing. I did cut up my heel a little bit (my Oakley shoes were NOT meant for walking; another reason I prefer Converse).
Tuesday I’ll be seeing “Chelsea on the Rocks,” and Jamie will be in town to pick up some of the slack with “The Cool School” and “Hank and Mike.” I’ve got 5 more reviews to post over the next 24 hours, and then likely another 5 after that. Rolling along…
God. Damn. It.
That looks like the best party yet and at my favorite Vegas hangout too. F-you all.