Thursday August 26th:
I was feeling a little shaky about going to Vegas twice in two weeks with my current financial situation, but after my last session at the Golden Nugget, I felt better about it. This time, Dave was invited to play a poker tournament called “Vegas Rock Star Poker” at the Palms. Dave, Tommy Lee, and Johnny Rzeznik from Goo Goo Dolls would play a bunch of contest winners in a NLHE touney, and the winner gets 10 grand. We cruised out on Thursday afternoon, and watched Ali G season one on DVD in the car. RESPEK!!! We got to Vegas, checked in at the Palms, and got some food. Afterwards, I hit the poker tables, and made a quick hundo. There was a private in-room 2 table poker tourney that the people behind the event put on, but it was a sham of a farce of a travesty …because I didn’t win it.

Afterwards we got tattoos. Dave got his bats at the Hart & Huntington shop in the Palms the week before, and this week I wanted to get a design on my wrist that I had drawn up. It was a design of line art, with curlee Q’s and thorn shapes. Like tribal, but a bit more girly. All of my tattoos I have drawn up for the tattoo artist, I don’t trust anybody yet to just go for it on me. A guy named Ben hooked me up and did a great job. So far this was the most painful tattoo yet for me. It wasn’t so bad until the inner part of my wrist on the right side. That, in a word, sucked.

Dave had some extra space on the front of his right arm and got “Don’t Try This at Home” in cursive. We both finished up about the same time, and afterwards we all went up to the Ghostbar. Ghostbar is a really cool looking place, but as with all clubs, its blasting hip hop at max volume, so therefore, generally unpleasant. I remember leaning over to Riss and screaming “This would be the coolest club in the world if they played good music, can you imagine?”, and low and behold, the DJ got wind of Dave being there and started playing music with ....(drum roll) GUITARS and SINGING. Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s, Chilis, Alice. It was nice. Of course, all dancing abruptly stopped, and all the hotties in attendance started looking around all confused, but hell, it was only one night, and we had fun. And you know what, it probably did them some good, too, a little exposure to Rock and Roll. Loud dance clubs are about my least favorite place to be, but when one is on the top of a skyscraper in Las Vegas, and it’s blasting “Would” from Alice in Chains, I am forced to reconsider my position.
Afterwards, we hit the café and I had a butterscotch sundae. The French waiter asked Dave, because he is in show business, if he had any way of reaching actor Dolph Lundgren.

(insert awkward silence here)

Apparently he doesn’t, but the sundae was AWESOME.

Friday August 27th:
So begins one of the most fun days I have ever had in Las Vegas, but also the day of my worst slaughtering in the poker room. Riss was off to do Dave stuff, so I hit the tables. Sadly, the next two hours were not so pleasant, and culminated with me pulling one of the worst idiot moves in all of pokerdom: the misread straight. I had good pocket cards, and was heads up with a guy for a big pot, and when the river card fell, I went all in, he called, and I triumphantly threw down my cards and said “straight”. But saying it doesn’t mean much when there aren’t really 5 cards that all run together. My stack was gone, and instead of buying in for more, I got up and left. Some hands you don’t recover from.

The Vegas Rockstar event was warming up, and there was a dinner for all the contest winners and Rock guys before the game. I was seated next to a nice mother named Penny and her daughter Mandy from Houston, Texas. They were all trash talking, but confided in me that they were just out for fun, and had no real aspirations for winning the thing. I gave Mandy some basic poker help (premium hands, premium hands) and said that hey, they had a one (or two) in 21 shot of taking home a boatload of money, so give it your best shot. The event was run by some cool guys -especially Mike McGaw.

The game itself ended up being insane. Phil Gordon was the emcee, and was calling all the action from the floor. The first musician out was Rzeznik, then Dave, then Tommy. The final two were a guy who had played great solid poker all night named Eric, and wouldn’t you know it, Penny, the mom from Houston. She was the short stack at the final table, but won some insane all-in hands to go heads up with Eric. She was getting kinda smashed, dancing in her chair, and having a good old time with it, and Eric was a rock. It looked like it was over for her on a giant hand, when she caught a miracle card and became chip leader. This set Eric on a massive orgy of tilt. In a calm moment before the play resumed, I bent over and whispered “You can do this” to Penny. After catching some good cards, and capitalizing on Eric’s suddenly uneven play, Penny won the 10 grand. Sadly, it was a winner take all event and Eric didn’t get any of it. I give huge credit to Eric, and feel bad for him, he really played wonderfully all night, but at the end, it was fun rooting for the underdog.

The after party was up in the Real World suite. What a room. No locks on the doors, crazy décor, and packed with people. Dave got into a bubble bath with a view of the strip. Photo Op. They had some acoustics in cases lying around, and I took one and went into the black “confessional” room and came up with a chord progression and melody. Sometimes I get inspired when there are loads of people and loud music nearby, but I am alone in the midst of it. Something about the energy is transferable, I suppose. Later we went to Dave’s room and rocked the room service. Great day.

Sunday I had one agenda: cram as much touristy Vegas stuff as possible before the car took us home at 6:30pm. We went to the Bellagio and hit the buffet. Love the buffet. Walked the Caesars forum shops, then hit the Mirage and took in the dolphin habitat and Siegfried & Roy’s secret garden. The garden has an elephant, white tigers, leopards, and lions. At 6:30 we got into the car (Dave flew out to Miami for the VMA’s, so we the car to ourselves on the way back) and watched “Alien” and the original Rat Pack “Ocean’s Eleven” on the way home. All in all, I lost the money I had made the week before at the Nugget, but had one of the best Vegas weekends I’ve ever had.

Now, enough of that crap, back to work making music.