Fleeting fame and more.
 

Hm, I haven't been to any places in Florida, and the only place that I stumbled in to in Houston was some sort of cabaret place, where it was a single dancer at a pole, wearing a thong and that liquid latex over her nipples. Apparently, I should have paid attention to the signs as I was heading downtown from the airport.

Florida way above Vegas? That's saying something.

I like Olympic Gardens and Spearmint Rhino better than I liked Crazy Horse Too, but I was at CHT early on a Sunday night (and with the Mrs., even). Olympic Gardens had the best looking dancers, and excellent lap dances. Spearmint Rhino had great looking dancers, and when we got there early, the dancers all came and talked with us, and gave some more attention during the lap dances.

Rivers of blood, locusts, and not-quite-virgin births.
 

This is a revelation.

(...and his torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man. And in those days shall PLF seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from him (except when it shall stalk him), with golden trumpet and flaming burrito in hand. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit (known henceforth as the spawn), shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and shall kill them.)

Whatever. Thank God I don't have to deal with uptight "good society" doyen(ne)s on a regular basis. Enjoyment of arcane knowledge (a la BRC/DS and you) is one thing. Expecting reasonable people to adhere to such rules is something else. One can have manners, common decency, good sense, and treat others with kindness while still wearing strapless dresses at noon...unless the wearer is motherjumpin' huge. That, and XXXXXL spandex, are clearly crimes against humanity.

CDF (wondering which one of the Paigow Prettys will bear the mark of the beast)

Fleeting fame and more.
 

I've said it before and will say it again: Of all the women in the world, you married the perfect one for you. You need to treat the Mrs. right and never give her cause to throw your stuff out the door because you're never going to find anyone better.

Worked up? Huh? I assumed they'd be mentally planning their grocery lists while lap dancing or thinking about stopping at Target on the way home and that if they were thinking about the guy at all it would be to figure out how to get the most $$ from him.

Rivers of blood, locusts, and not-quite-virgin births.
 

If you're gonna quote from the new Al Franken book about O'Reilly, at least have the courtesy to give a cite.

not7yS

Fleeting fame and more.
 

It goes against the will of the cosmos to have a discussion of strip clubs and to leave Dallas off of the list. What next? A discussion of boob jobs without honorable mention for their city of creation?

I'm so disappointed.

Reality TV Trivia
 

I didn't realize that she and the Nets (?) guy had divorced. As a follow-up piece of trivia to my earlier question I was going to add that she was the first reality tv person to get an abortion with the cameras following her. Wonder how she feels about that in retrospect (the camera following aspect, not the abortion aspect).

Bonus trivia - who was the most annoying person from that cast?

Once Upon A Time in Mexico
 

Resolved: The cast of Once Upon A Time in Mexico is the hottest group of actors to work together on a film in the past 20 years.

The actresses: Salma Hayek, Eva Mendes
The actors: Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke (for those who like their men scummy), and Enrique Iglesias (who apparently is hot because he got with Anna K.)

Rivers of blood, locusts, and not-quite-virgin births.
 

All, of course.

As Mendel may tell you, while the Flower has exceedingly pretty genes, they are, sadly, recessive.

106 mi to Chicago, full tank of gas, 1/2 pack of cigarettes, dark, wearing sunglasses
 

This chick has to remember not to drive like this unless John Landis is directing.

It takes some effort to piece together from the article, but it sounds like she really got airborne. The witness was in sitting in his apartment underneath the restaurant that got destroyed.

Gatti("I heard the building shake, then this car flew over.")gap

Fleeting fame and more.
 

No strip club tour would be complete without both Dallas and Houston. It is part of our culture. It is Who We Are.

My Dallas experience in these matters is limited to trips to the $MM Saloon as an SA. I have heard that the place owned by the guys from Pantera is good, but I have not been. In Houston, I recommend Treasures. The artists who work there are quality professionals committed to customer satisfaction. They will not be thinking of the grocery list, or they at least will not let you know that they are thinking of the grocery list, which is what's important.

Be forewarned: it is all about the Benjamins, or, more traditionally, the Andys. And I'm not talking about a few lonely bills from the atm. A proper evening in the Champagne Room requires a stack of twenties thicker than most closing binders. Think spending money like a drunken broker. The artists may not be priceless, but they will be everywhere you want them to be.

So I've heard.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Ah yes, the famed "Canadian Ballet." I recall feeling much shame as a child when, while visiting Epcot with my parents (shut up), my father, thinking that he was a laugh riot, asked the young lady at one of the Canada shops if there was an attraction featuring the "Canadian Ballet." Apparently the young lady either had no idea what the fuck he was talking about or had the good sense to realize that this strange American man had chosen to take his "drinking trip around the world" clockwise and Canada was his last stop and simply smiled and offered him a free sample of maple sugar candy..mmmmmm, maple sugar candy.

Bored? Try this.
 

New game for you to play. [spree: somewhat humorous office game]

http://www.disarea.com/work/office_space/

I apologize in advance if this has been linked before.

aV

Skateploitation?
 

Helen Stickler has made a documentary about the rise and fall of Gator -- a skater I mentioned here a few weeks ago.

(link to NYT article)

It is interesting that she compares skateboarding to stripping -- a bit of rationalising methinks.

When I was much younger in CA, I skated daily at Santa Cruz, Derby Park, Buena Vista, etc. and frequently hung out with a lot these guys, including Gator. And skateboard companies are nothing nothing nothing like strip clubs, porn companies, or even models, Inc. Sticker needs to pull her head out of Williamsburg-Hipster-I-can-reduce-everything-to -feminist-theory ass.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Speaking of the Canadian Ballet, has Windsor been mentioned? It's phenomenal, plus it has a casino. 5 Canadian dollar lap dances; 4 Canadian dollar Labatt (Canada's Natural Lite!). And take Chicago OFF the list completely. The strip clubs here are brutal. Expensive and not completely nude (if you want booze). And the Crazy Horse charged my GF a cover -- when did they start charging women?

Two years ago, at about 4 in the morning on a Friday night at the Crazy Horse, a friend said, "this is bullshit -- I want full nudity and booze." It reminded me of Booger in Revenge of the Nerds. So we all went back home, packed a bag, and drove to Windsor. At around 11:30 AM we crossed the Detroit/Canada border, checked into a hotel, slept 'til 3 PM and went straight to The Million Dollar Club for 8 straight hours.

Good times.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

According to Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Tour Across America, strip clubs in Montana and Alaska are pretty wild, and are totally nude. Central Florida was noted for the sheer number of strip clubs, though Houston has the most in a single city. The author of that book favored Dallas over Houston due to the new city ordinance about the number of feet allowed between the patron and the dancer. She seemed to hate El Paso and Pueblo, Colorado. Vegas overwhelmed her.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Agree on Windsor, but unfortunately Coltrane is right about Chicago, especially within the city limits... Daley, et al., have legislated the fun out of the clubs in town. Funny because from the looks of him and his "advisors" they look like guys that would appreciate a good lap dance.

There are only a couple of full nudity, full liquor bar clubs in the area that I'm aware of and they are in a pretty shady suburb to the south... Some up north or by the airport are o.k., too. The Admiral is a legendary facility and draws the top adult film actresses, but alas it is within the city limits.

As for other towns that deserve mention, St. Louis is far better than Chicago on this front, with the original PT's and a slew of clubs with loose rules on the east side of the river... Also have had a good time at some clubs in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm area. And finally, a special honorable mention to an out of the way joint that is an absolute mecca for college guys in the midwest... Big Al's in Peoria, Illinois.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

and the drinking age is 18 or 19 so the border is full of young kids leaving the US going to get bombed and older guys going to the strip clubs, and it all washes back up on our shores about 3:30 AM. I always wonder/worry about why US Customs doesn't bust dozens of real drunk people every night.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

No need to go city by city - all Canadian strippers are apparently hot. Except in Halifax I have heard. And I wouldn't count on much hotness in Newfoundland. 'A Current Affair' did a show on it a while back "Why are Canadian Strippers so Good-Looking?" - in it they interviewed random Canadian strippers who didn't know why they were so good looking and their drunken customers who came up with such reasons as "I dunno, clean air" and one said "our national symbol is the beaver" as a reason. Now that's quality TV.

The only strip clubs I have been in have been in Montreal- about half the customers were women, it seemed, like going on a first date to a strip club would not be unusual. The women didn't seem unusually good looking, but very friendly.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

I again caught portions of Paradise Hotel and found myself asking "Why are the Reality Hotel Guests so Average to Sub-par Looking?"

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Totally nude places are overrated in my opinion. You may as well pay to be a gynecologist in skankville. And of course, the non-totally nude places tend to be wonderfully free market driven. The artists are usually considered independent contractors, so not only do the establishments not compete, but the the artists themselves constantly seek ways for product differentiation.

I have heard about the distance thing. I used to work for an attorney that had been assigned to the vice unit (heh) of the Harris Cty DA's office, and his job involved site inspections to make sure these distances were observed. He said that after a time it was the most boring job he'd ever had. Anyway, based on empirical observation, the distance restrictions are either no longer in place or are not enforced.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

If you want an extreme example of that, watch Ocean's Eleven and then take a walk through the actual Bellagio.

Sodenbergh must've done a thorough sweep to rid the floor of flip flops and tank tops.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Houston.

<EOM>

Fleeting fame and more.
 

How do I get in touch with him? I have an assignment for him at my firm.

FB Book Club
 

I bought that book on your suggestion and am reading it now. Thanks for the recommendation. Next up is Dry by Augusten Burroughs. I already read Running With Scissors, so I know his writing style. Anyone read Dry?

Also I read Positively Fifth Street recently. I really enjoyed the subject matter (learning about all the World Series of Poker hot shots and about Ted Binion's murder), but I have to say that McManus' writing style tended to bug me. Interestingly he taught writing to David Sederis at the Art Institute in Chicago, so Sederis had a blurb on the cover of the book. More interestingly, Sederis is a much better writer (IMO) than his instructor.

Any other book club suggestions? I'm doing a bunch of traveling coming up, so I could use a few more books to carry with me...

Amazing Race
 

info for those who are interested --

David and Jeff, Kelly and Jon, and Reichen and Chip will sprint for the finish line and $1 million on tonight's finale of The Amazing Race 4. The one-hour conclusion airs at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Executive producer Bertram van Munster says that "(what happens) is very exciting and unexpected." He and his wife and co-executive producer Elise Doganieri discuss the logistics of the show in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Responding to a question about danger, Doganieri says the show has "an incredible security team that travels with us, and they do advise us on locations we choose, and they are watching closely where the contestants are and where they're going." The Journal Sentinel notes that they "are waiting to hear if you are renewed for a fifth season."

FB Book Club
 

I am reading The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. He's a math prof somewhere on the east coast but this is a novel about the inhabitants of apartment complex in Bombay. It's very Bollywood-influenced, if you are amused by that kind of thing. It's quite strange and funny.

FB Book Club
 

I'm reading "Prague" by Arthur Philips. It's fiction, not travel. If you like(d) the Lost Generation (the actual generation: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ford, Joyce, etc) then you might like it. It's about a group of 1990's ex-pats in Budapest. Very interesting characters. If you've ever had the urge to ex-pat yourself (everday for me), then I'd definitely recommend it.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

The distance rule is honored about as well as the prohibition on open containers. That's why so many strippers carry condoms while working and any gas station or Stop-N-Rob has single beers with little brown paper bags.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Friendly edit: your second sentence should have ended after "condoms."

FB Book Club
 

Life of Pi is in paperback.

If you have an interest in NY or Gangs of New York, I recommend Kevin Baker's Dreamland. I loved it. Paradise Alley will soon be out in paperback, and it also received rave reviews.

My favorite book to read on planes is still Consolations of Philosophy. We own his-and-hers copies, one on each nightstand, after he kept stealing mine. (On a related note, we also own two copies of Working Out, Working Withing and 24 hour Zen, also on each nightstand.)

Strippers
 

The stripper discussion cannot exclude San Francisco. No alcohal in nude clubs, but the action is, shall we say, aggressive. Heavy grinding and mutual touching is the norm for lap dances. If you can stand the smell and the talent level, you'll see things at the Market Street Cinema that you won't generally find outside of Thailand (warning: extremely high crack ho factor). And then there's the O'Farrel, where, for a substantial chunk of change, magazine-quality strippers will openly offer to suck your cock.

FB Book Club
 

So the two of you go the bedroom, strip down to your skivvies, then each reach for a good book? Freaks!!!

FB Book Club
 

I'm reading The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd right now. I'm only a couple of chapters into it, but it's very interesting.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Go ahead, suck me back into the FB.

Distance rules are enforced. On occasion. For example, last Saturday night, vice pulled a few dancers away and cited them, mid-dance, for violating the distance rules. This led to a serious, woefully unpleasant taming of the club, until vice left.

At least, that's what I heard.

And yes, *she* was there, in case anyone was wondering.

Sidd(sigh)Finch

FB Book Club
 

Avack! Tie the scurvy dog to the yardarm!

Pirates are always cool.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

I meant to be Houston-specific. Glad to hear that your romance flourishes.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Well, think about it. You get to vote who comes to the hotel. No one really wants someone hotter than them, so I think the overall looks of the gang are slipping. Besides, some of these people have been there for weeks! Weeks! Obviously losers with no jobs, or very very understanding bosses. Is there any money in this? No one talks about money...only staying at the hotel.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Thieves broke into Don Massey Cadillac in Lone Tree, Colo., last November and stole seven Escalade sport utility vehicles. The dealership was not alone: Thieves go after the $55,000 SUV at a higher rate than any other vehicle, according to a report by a research group funded by auto insurers. THE REPORT, by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, reviewed insurance claims for thefts or break-ins for 2000-2002 model year cars, then compared those claims to the total number of insurance policies for each of those vehicles.
Based on theft claims per 1,000 insured vehicles, five of the top 10 vehicles stolen or broken into are SUVs. The Dodge Stratus, ranked second on the list, was the four-door car targeted at the highest rate, according to the institute. Camry didn’t make it into the Insurance Institute’s top 10 list, because the Camry’s percentage of theft claims is low compared with the large number of Camrys on the road.
There are fewer Escalades on the road, but the SUVs are four times more likely to be stolen or broken into than the average vehicle, the institute said. Cadillac spokesman Kerry Christopher said he does not know why the Escalade has such a high theft rate, (I'm a big fat moron who knows nothing about gangbangers) noting that the vehicle’s horn goes off to deter thieves and the Cadillac has an immobilizer device so it cannot be started without a key.

These models are most appealing to auto thieves, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Cadillac Escalade

Dodge Stratus

Mitsubishi Mirage

Jeep Wrangler

Lincoln Navigator 2-wheel drive

Dodge Intrepid

Lincoln Navigator 4-wheel drive

Dodge Ram 1500 series pickup

Ford Expedition

Chrysler Sebring


I can't imagine why so many Chrysler cars made this list. Anyone? Drug dealers in Chrysler Sebrings? They must have shitty locks or something.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Typically if you see an unexpected vehicle on these lists its because of the interchangeability of that vehicle's parts, i.e. when stripped down the vehicle's parts can be widely used on a number of other vehicles... That's why, along with their general popularity, in previous years a number of small to mid-size Japanese cars were consistently in the top 10.

Lies and the Lying Liars that tell them
 

OK, going for the turkey of serial posting. Here's your Al Franken update. Well it's not really an Al Franken update, but "Fair and Balanced." It seems to be a borderline politics board theme, but I'm posting it here for Al Franken fans, even though Al has nothing to do with this.

The latest Democratic drive to make sure President Bush serves just one term takes a page from the effort to oust a Democratic governor in California, calling its web site "bushrecall" and garnering support through petitions.

A new committee called the Fair and Balanced PAC plans to launch its www.bushrecall.org Web site Thursday.

If Fox is suing Al, don't they have to protect their "Fair and Balanced" here as well?


Fair and Balanced