I had one of the best birthdays last week. I don't know if it's the advent of facebok and the ability for everyone to know when it is if they log in on a fairly regular basis, but it was a good time none the less.

When I went out on Thursday we stopped at Allen St Hardware. What got me was something that initially in my mind was bad, but after some consideration I justified it as being alright. Hardware was the first place around here that I was consciously aware of that served Pabst or PBR and for years they had it in bottles none the less. Then I would say they stopped the bottles and served cans, now if I want a PBR in a bottle I'll now have to go next door to Staples or walk across the street to Mulligans Brick Bar or walk further down the st to Frizzy's. Then what I realized was they substituted their "old man beer" selections to Genny Screamer or Genesee Cream Ale and also Schmidt's or I guess as it's marketed now just Schmidt. I can deal with Genny C.A. as it isn't that bad and to be honest there aren 't really too many cream ales out on the market anyway. Now I brought a case of Schmit's to a party about a 2 years ago as a joke since all of the people at this party were micro brew beer snobs. Well I guess in some sort of new-found hipter way actually they drank us out of the Schmidt's and even the Old Milwaukee that we brought as well.

In the end I actually don't mind Schmidt's as it's a pretty smooth drinking beer to have and for $2.50 a can you can't go wrong with the price. So I think I can forgive them for discontinuing the PBR on their beer list.

I have finally decided to spend the money and buy a real camera. So in doing my research I've pretty much narrowed it down to two choices. The cannon sx20 is & the cannon sd980is.

They're both in my price range of $300-$400 but the thing that I am still hung up on is the question, Do I really want to lug a small brick around with the sx20?

The reason why I have settled on the two is for the basic fact that they're in my price range and the videos that I have seen on youtube really are pretty descent for digital cameras.

What I am doing today is kicking myself for not jumping on the available used & refurbished ones that were available this weekend. If I can snag a sd980is for under $300 I may grab that or if a sx20 is available for around $300 I may just snag it. So it may come down to price and taking the plunge on a used/refurb item. Yea I know it may be a gamble as you don't really know what you're getting but right now I'm kind of in the penny pinching mindset for some odd reason.

I went to see Ben Folds tonight with the BPO.

It was an amazing show as his older stuff really took on another new dimension with a symphony orchestra behind him.

Anyway he didn't play the "Brick Song" which kind of left me disappointed, but I could see why he wouldn't want to play it after all these years.

So here's another brick type of song from a German SynthPop group.



I basically associate the song with the old Continental which will soon be razed. Anyway I have this vision that I will finally be happily married when the place does come falling down. It's kind of like the end of some cheesy movie when the hero destroys the ______ which interns and keeps captive the good energy and souls of innocent people that he evil villain has captured and interned through his conquests and evil deeds. So even though the place was my own personal "Old Pink" in the sense that I could always find some stray goth chick that had a shitload of problems more than I could ever comprehend, doing me wasn't one of them...

Well I came across one of those things in the Buffalo News this weekend that kind of blew my mind. It was an article stating the a big trend these days on college campuses is to sing Ben Folds Five or his solo stuff acapella

Now how does this stuff develop organically? I have been with his since Whatever and Ever Amen and I'm just amazed that kids these days are into 1. good music and 2. do it in a unique style.

Here are some of my favorites that I cam across:

Army



Brick Song



You Don't Know Me



Annie Waits

After the horrendous week I had it was just perfect timing that I was able to get out of dodge and to Vegas. So I went from Saturday until Wednesday and had a descent time. Although I didn't come out ahead, I did have a freaking blast @ Rehab. The pool party on Sunday's at the Hard Rock Hotel, the one that the reality show is filmed on TruTv.

So here are a few pics of the new Paradise Tower room I stayed in.

Me on the bed checking facebook or something.



The Vanity



Shower



View 1



View 2





Even though I posted the following on another site, I'll just repost it over here, but yea I love Rehab, the pool party. I guess I have a bit of frat boy in me or something, but for an event which you can view and make your own opinions of I was pretty impressed by the DJ's and what they were spinning. For instance they were playing Depeche mode and other assorted stuff that I used to hear when the Continental was open 5 years ago. Also a reoccurring theme for me at this event is some chick always tries to get me to save her expensive pair of Dolce & Gabbana or Dior sunglasses as they drop somewhere in the pool, at least the chick that made out with me found hers.

Sun 9/27

We wake up a bit early and place our bets for the Sunday NFL action. After handicapping out bets we head down to grab the breakfast buffet, which though at $20+ dollars was a bit expensive, but to be honest the food was of very good quality with a great selection. Our next move after watching the first half of the games a decent sized TV in the North Tower room was to then check out. We then walked north about two blocks to the downtown transportation center where we still had valid bus passes from yesterday. We then hopped the 108 to the Hard Rock before they expired on 25 minutes. I went to the front desk to check in and my friend stood in a very long bell hop line to check out bags as our room wasn't ready and wouldn't be for a few hours. In the meantime we obtained out Rehab wristbands and hung out at the sports book to catch the 4th quarter of some games. We then went into Rehab and kicked back for a few hours taking in the scene and scenery. After going back in to the sports book to place a wager on the 2nd half of the Bills/Saints game and coming back into the covered bar area in the pool area my cell phone rings and our room is ready, it's about 4PM at this time, we then pull the same delegation of tasks and we're up in our Paradise Tower "mountain view" room. Honestly they should market it as a South Strip view as you do and can see if you turn at an angle everything from Bally's to Encore/Wynn with a straight on view of the Hilton. I was pretty impressed with the new rooms as the gothic wall patterns, pic of a rock star, beds, shower head, amours, and ever the naughty catalog complete with the $7 assorted male contraceptives on top of the min-bar, 40 inch HDTV with 200+ channels and cordless room phone.

So after changing into our swim trunks it was off to the pool, which was the main reason why we choose to spend $350 for a room on a Sunday, Rehab! It was everything that it portrayed on TV, but going there is always a rush. I just enjoyed $7 beers, but my friend indulged in the $22 sports drink cups, which are filled ½ of the way with booze. Needless to say he didn't heed my warning about the dangers of partaking in such consumption and he did feel worse for the wear. I actually was impressed by what the DJ's were spinning and did get my moment in the sun when some chick from Staten Island basically jumped me in the pool ;-) Yea, I don't know what it is with my and chicks from the metro NYC area but it was fun as my buddy shook his head. I basically at the end of the night had a conversation with the bartender Kat who was working the covered area away from the insanity by the DJ's and the main pool. I basically got all of my drinks from her all night and was totally impressed by her grace, poise and charm. She hasn't let the show get to her head at all. Plus she did a phenomenal job of keeping the drinks coming fast and cold all day. So around 8ish I bid my goodbye and ended up walking out with a security guard and we then spoke for about 10-15 minutes about the craziness that is Rehab and how the show affects their job. I worked in a casino for about 4 years so I could definitely emphasize and relate to what they did every Sunday for the summer.