The famous New Frontier Casino in Las Vegas is no more after a spectacular implosion brought down the historic building over night. The New Frontier is most famous for being the first of the Strip’s theme casinos and the first Las Vegas performance of Elvis Presley, the hotel has had other famous performers over the years including ex President Ronald Regan, Wayne Newton and Vegas favorites Siegfried and Roy. The Last Frontier opened in 1942 as a cowboy inspired casino then took on a bit of a space age theme for a while before returning back to the western theme with cheap hotel rooms and bikini bull riding to name a few of its features. In its place will be the most lavish resort and casino on the strip. Developers plan to spend about 5 billion dollars and expect doors to open some time late 2010 early 2011. The strip (as usual) is going through some huge changes with several billion dollar plus projects planned or under construction.
Posts under ‘Kitsch Stuff’
Grand Prix with a Kiss
Legendary rock group Kiss will be the star attractions along with the best of Formula One motorsport and the mighty Australian V8 Supercars at the Australian Grand Prix held in Melbourne, March next year. The band has had a long history of playing special concerts in Melbourne, they recorded a television special there a few years back with a one of concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with classical music set to their greatest hits. The Melbourne Grand Prix is the first event on the 2008 Grand Prix calendar and promises to be huge with several hundred thousand people attending over the four day event. Held beautiful Albert Park with sweeping views of the city the Grand Prix is regarded one of the world’s best and with next years special guests Kiss it promises to be even better.
It’s a fatso after all
We love a Disneyland story and this one is a real bummer, well literally. One of the most memorable rides ‘It’s a small world’ attraction and its closing for a while for a bit of a refit. The boats are going to be made a bit bigger and the water a bit deeper and a few other high tech changes. Disney are quoted as saying the ride is getting a bit out of date and needs some new equipment while others are suggesting that the people riding the attraction are getting a bit heavier and the boats are not quiet coping with the extra weight. The ride opened in 1964 and is one of the most popular boat rides in the park but the boats are starting to bottom out and stopping the ride. Time will tell- and let’s hope they don’t change that can’t get it out of your head song….i’ts a small world after all, its a small world after all…
Watch out for Donkey Kong’s barrels!
Donkey Kong is one of the most loved of the video games and has survived over quarter of a century. Today the game is celebrated in a huge display at Berlin’s Computer Game Museum or computerspielemuseum. The huge scaffolding covers the front of the museum’s facade complete with barrels, ladders and of course everyone’s favorite ape Donkey Kong.
The museum itself is an amazing display of everything computerized it will keep the geek in you interested for hours, there’s lots of early computers and games from simple ping pong right up to the latest state of the art computer games and gadgets of the present.
Ettamongah Pub
Ken Maynard is one of Australia’s best loved cartoonists his favorite characters all feature around the Ettamongah Pub. The pub is a wacky old place and the people and critters in it are just as strange. Two of these hotels have been created in real life on just out of Albury / Wodonga in Southern New South Wales and this one on Queensland’s sunshine coast at Caloundra. Don’t forget to to have a ice cold beer at Bluey’s bar and the meals at the grill are huge and very Aussie.The pub is surrounded by Aussie World another kitsch and over the top Aussie adventure. There’s heaps of rides for the kids including a huge Ferris wheel and plenty of sideshow action.
The real Casa Bonita is not far from South Park
Many of you may know the name Casa Bonita from the South Park episode where Cartman tricks Butters into hiding for a week so he can go in his place to his favorite Mexican restaurant. In fact Casa Bonita is a real Mexican restaurant located in Lakewood, Colorado (just like the fictional South Park). Casa Bonita was once a chain of restaurants but only one now remains. The restaurant seats 1100 and has attractions like cliff divers, caves, flame jugglers and Mexican dancers, making the South Park depiction of Casa Bonita fairly accurate. The Restaurant is designed to look like a Mexican Village and its big seller is the all you can eat dinners. The video above is of the popular cliff divers diving into the restaurants artificial lake. If you ever get to Casa Bonita let us know what the tacos are like.
Warning- Treckies everywhere!
Thousands of Trekies and even a few normal people flock to the Las Vegas Hilton daily to visit the Star Trek Experience for a amazing adventure to the 24th century in a 4D spectacular. There are two shows to catch the Klingon Encounter and the recently opened Borg Invasion both use state of the art technology and are great fun. The experience also features a Star Trek museum where you can see some of the original props and costumes plus plenty of memorabilia. And of course there is the Star Trek gift shop at the close of the experience where you can pick up just about any imaginable piece of Star Trek souvenir and while you are at the Hilton why not catch a show from Barry Manilow or one of the other superstar entertainers who regularly play there.
McMuseum
In the late 1950’s a milkshake salesman came across two brothers Mac and Dick McDonald running a small but innovative hamburger restaurant in Bernardino, California. He got friendly and ended up going into partnership with the brothers and later buying them out in 1961 for $2.7 million dollars- the rest is history. Now McDonalds is the worlds biggest restaurant chain stretching to the four corners of the globe. The first branded McDonalds was opened in 1955 at Des Plains in Illinois, after decades of modifications and change what was left of the original building was demolished but a faithful replica of the original building has been built on the site using the original blueprints. It has been transformed into a museum with plenty of photos, memorabilia and presentations from the famous franchise. Strange thing is you can’t buy your favorite hamburger there, but there’s a nice new McDonalds just across the street.
Bargains amongst the palm trees
If you’ve spent the day in the sun on Waikiki Beach and need to find a bargain or that special kitsch gift for the friends back home give the International Marketplace a go. There are over 130 stores with everything you will ever need- authentic Hawaiian Shirts, jewelry, nick knacks and lots of other cool stuff. If shopping gets too hard there’s a few good cafes and bars to kick back in for a while before doing a bit more bargaining with the friendly store holders. Most nights there is free entertainment to make a great evening of it and the market is open seven days a week from 10 to 10:30 PM. days a week from 10 to 10:30 PM.
Celebrating Oktoberfest Japanese Style
Yebisu Garden Place is the located in the suburb now more commonly known as Ebisu which is a suburb of Tokyo not far from Shibuya and Roppongi. The Yebisu beer head quarters is situated here. The huge complex features a beer museum complete with samples of their tasty products, a large shopping mall, several restaurants and of course an indoor beer hall. The highlight of the centre is the whimsical Oktoberfest clock which celebrates every hour and delights young and old. The clock features horse drawn carriages with beer barrels, lots of German inspired characters and of course plenty of Ompha music, which for a moment makes you feel like you are in Munich.
