So you think you can play guitar? Filomena Moretti performing: Albeniz – Asturias

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Don’t mean to up-stage the Guitar Center boys, however,

I was searching YouTube for Andres Segovia when I discovered this brilliant, passionate guitarist. She hails from Sardinia, Italy, is young and beautiful, and plays with an impeccable technique. I thought – with one exception being Charo – that one had to be an old-man like Segovia to play like this. I guess Segovia was once young also. Seems like I’ll always know him as that classy, suit-wearing old-man who was – if not still is – the greatest classical guitarist in the history of the world.

Young ladies (or young-men) like this experience a great euphoria. Their music will give them great comfort throughout their lives. Classical guitar performance is not unlike transcendental meditation. If you click the Segovia video you’ll see Andres Segovia (around 4:26) in position as a perfect Buddha. That is to say that he looks like a Buddha figure in meditation. What a lovely man he was.

WIKI Article about author Isaac Albeniz

Holy smoke… Do you like it hot?

Classical Guitar Review.Com
BvE0LsIeNGM

Sahara offers last goodbyes after nearly 60 years

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This is reprint of an older post, from around May of this year, however I thought YOU may have missed the demise of the Sahara.
This is very important news, for Las Vegites. After all, this is like Las Vegas loosing an arm or a leg.

Sahara Hotel - August 1954
Sahara Hotel - August 1954

BY HOWARD STUTZ
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Posted: May 14, 2011 | 8:52 p.m.
Updated: May 15, 2011 | 1:10 p.m.

In it’s day, the Sahara was Las Vegas’ epicenter.

Peter Villalobos would know.

For almost 35 years, he manned the Strip hotel’s front desk.

He watched the parade of celebrities and the pseudocelebrities.

He supervised thousands of hotel check-ins for high rollers and want-to-be high rollers.

Villalobos will be at his front desk terminal Monday when the Sahara’s final guest checks out at around noon. The nearly 60-year-old Strip resort will cease operations two hours later, a victim of both the recession and of progress.

Sahara owners SBE Entertainment of Los Angeles and private equity firm Stockbridge Real Estate of San Francisco acquired the hotel-casino in 2007 from the family of the late casino pioneer William Bennett. The new owners had hopes of breathing new life into the resort. They have not announced plans for the 18-acre corner of the Strip and Sahara Avenue.

In March, SBE said it was “no longer economically viable” to operate the Sahara.

GOING OUT WITH DIGNITY

Last week, Arash Azarbarzin, president of SBE’s hotel division, who has overseen the Sahara since the company took control, said the goal was to close the Strip resort “quietly and with dignity.”

His thoughts have been with employees like Villalobos, who remained loyal to the property, even as the city’s two-decade building boom added megaresorts that dwarfed the aged, 1,720-room Sahara.

Villalobos gave Azarbarzin a firm handshake last week and thanked him for the four years that SBE kept the property operating. The year SBE took over, the company spent about $2 million to refurbish and make cosmetic changes to the Sahara’s public areas. SBE never operated the casino; that was done by Navegante Group read more…
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Sahara Marquee
Sahara Marquee

From ClassicLasVegas.SquareSpace.Com

Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn Hotel History / The Swinging Sahara Hotel History – 1950s

The Swinging Sahara Hotel History – 1950s
Post-WWII Las Vegas must have looked very inviting. Men with vision were coming into town to build hotels to cater to Americans hungry to travel after the rationing and sacrifices of the War. In less than ten years, there were five hotels, the El Rancho Vegas, Hotel Last Frontier, the Fabulous Flamingo, the Thunderbird and Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn built on the two-lane highway that led to Fremont Street.

Though some locals wondered where all the people would come from to fill the new resorts, the men with vision kept assuring everyone they would come.

Fred Schivo was a long-time gamer who had the idea for the Club Bingo, a 300-seat bingo parlor. He had to find investors that would be willing to take the financial plunge. He lucked out when he met Milton Prell from Butte, Montana. Prell had operated the “30 Club” in Butte but like many other gambling visionaries of the day he relocated to the friendly climes of Las Vegas in the 1940s. Though not as well known today as others such as Wilbur Clark and Del Webb, Prell nonetheless, made an impact on Las Vegas.

Club Bingo opened on a rainy day, July 24th, 1947. In addition to the bingo parlor there were a few other games of chance but the Club Bingo had a reputation for fine food in its Bonanza Room. There were no hotel rooms, the Club Bingo was just a club for gambling, fine dining and they had a small showroom that showcased the talented Dorothy Dandridge, comedian Stan Irwin and the Treniers.

Milton Prell soon realized that the future of the Las Vegas Strip was in having a resort hotel that catered to the tourists swarming in from Southern California. That meant financing the building of a major hotel

Located on the east side of the Highway and directly across from the El Rancho Vegas, the Club Bingo had a prime location. In the years ahead, Prell would also build the Lucky Strike and the Mint Hotel on Fremont Street but it was the construction of the Sahara that led to the creation of the Sahara-Nevada Corporation which he would ultimately sell to Del Webb.

Prell approached Dallas financial wizard A. Pollard Simon with plans for 276 two-story units. Simon agreed to go ahead with the Sahara project despite the fact he was also helping finance Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn. Local air-conditioning contractor Al Wild introduced Prell to Del Webb. Webb had just finished working on the Fabulous Flamingo. Wild had known Webb since 1935. Ultimately, according to Wild, Webb, Prell and Simon agreed to a “cost plus” arrangement that included a percentage of stock (20% it was later learned) in the new hotel be given to Webb as partial payment for his services.

The architect was Max Maltzmann and the designer was Albert Parvin. Maltzmann had been working in Los Angeles since the 1920s. Architecturally, according to Alan Hess, “the Sahara followed the basic partner of the Desert Inn and the Thunderbird. It featured a tall brick pylon at the entry which anchored the low wings that spun outward from its center like a pinwheel.” The motif was similar to the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix by Frank Lloyd Wright. There the sculptural elements of the textile block provided ornament. At the Sahara, the signage became the ornament.

The theme was North Africa. Statues of plastic camels and Arabs dotted the facade. Inside there was the Congo Room (the showroom), the Casbah Lounge and the Caravan Room. All that seemed to be missing was the Cafe Americain from Casablanca. Life-size models of African warriors, spears held high, flanked the Congo Room entrance. A nomadic caravan including camels was placed out front on the lawn.
The Caravan Room looked out over the pool terrace. Like all the other hotels back then, the Sahara was basically a motel in form. It had a low main building with a lobby and a casino in the front and the rooms to the sides. The glassy restaurants such as the Caravan Room looked out not only on the pool area but the well manicured and landscaped lawns. Lucius Beebe gushed “its twenty acres of landscaped ground with rare blossoms and shrubs to make even Boston’s Public Gardens look to its tulips” read more, virtually all about it with note-links, photos and more.

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Food Ark

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FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
July 2011

“A crisis is looming: To feed our growing population, we’ll need to double food production. Yet crop yields aren’t increasing fast enough, and climate change and new diseases threaten the limited varieties we’ve come to depend on for food. Luckily we still have the seeds and breeds to ensure our future food supply—but we must take steps to save them.”

Food Arcs Conservationist Cary Fowler - Photo Jim Richardson
Food Arc's Conservationist Cary Fowler - Photo Jim Richardson

Conservationist Cary Fowler holds two vials of peas. The sleek structure behind him holds the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which he founded in Norway to help stop the mass extinction of crops that threatens our future food supply.
www.jimrichardsonphotography.com

MORE FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
By Charles Siebert
Photograph by Jim Richardson

“Six miles outside the town of Decorah, Iowa, an 890-acre stretch of rolling fields and woods called Heritage Farm is letting its crops go to seed. It seems counterintuitive, but then everything about this farm stands in stark contrast to the surrounding acres of neatly rowed corn and soybean fields that typify modern agriculture. Heritage Farm is devoted to collecting rather than growing seeds. It is home to the Seed Savers Exchange, one of the largest nongovernment-owned seed banks in the United States.”

“In 1975 Diane Ott Whealy was bequeathed the seedlings of two heirloom plant varieties that her great grandfather had brought to America from Bavaria in 1870: Grandpa Ott’s morning glory and his German Pink tomato. Wanting to preserve such unique varieties, Diane and her husband, Kent, decided to establish a place where people could store and trade the seeds of their own past. The exchange now has more than 13,000 members and keeps in its walk-in coolers, freezers, and root cellars the seeds of many thousands of heirloom varieties. The farm grows a glorious profusion of select vegetables, herbs, and flowers around an old red barn that is covered in Grandpa Ott’s stunningly deep purple morning glory blossoms.”

“Each year our members list their seeds in this,” Diane Ott Whealy says, handing over a copy of the Seed Savers Exchange 2010 Yearbook. It is as thick as a big-city telephone directory, with page after page of exotic beans, garlic, potatoes, peppers, apples, pears, and plums—each with its own name, personal history, and distinct essence. There’s an apple known as Beautiful Arcade, a “yellow fruit splashed with red”; one named Prairie Spy, described as “precocious”; another dubbed Sops of Wine that dates back to the Middle Ages. There’s an Estonian Yellow Cherry tomato obtained from “an elderly Russian lady” in Tallinn, a bean found by archaeologists searching for pygmy elephant fossils in New Mexico, a Persian Star garlic from “a bazaar in Samarkand.”
More from National Geographic

From the comments forum of Hines.Blogspot.Com:
THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2011 10:17:00 AM CDT
Paul Heald said…
“except for the fact that the RAFI study Siebert relies upon has been discredited and recent studies show an increase in crop diversity in the twentieth century and his apple data is completely incorrect . . . to see the raw numbers that he misses check out: “Crop Diversity Report Card for the Twentieth Century: Diversity Bust or Diversity Boom?” at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1462917 and “Apple Diversity Report Card” at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1543336.”

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27 year old hipster musician Amy Winehouse found dead in London flat

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Amy Winehouse - Photo WitchesBrewOnLine.com
Amy Winehouse - Photo WitchesBrewOnLine.com

It was no surprise to hear this blurb on the radio this morning, July 23, 2011 at 11:00 AM. Amy Winehouse joins that long list of rock musicians who leave way too soon. – LVBC

FROM WIKIPEDIA
“The 27 Club, also occasionally known as the Forever 27 Club or Club 27, is a name for a group of influential rock music artists who died at the age of 27. The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll details the history of the phenomenon.”

Musicians usually included in the 27 Club

The impetus for the club’s creation were the deaths of Jones, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison.[1] Cobain, who died in 1994, was later added by some. With the exception of Joplin, there is controversy surrounding their deaths. According to the book Heavier Than Heaven, when Cobain died, his sister claimed that as a kid he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club.[2] On the fifteenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, National Public Radio’s Robert Smith said, “The deaths of these rock stars at the age of 27 really changed the way we look at rock music.”[3] The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll details the history of the phenomenon more from WIKI

FROM CBSNEWS.COM
July 23, 2011 12:42 PM
Amy Winehouse found dead

(CBS News) Last Updated 1:11 p.m. ET
Singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead in her North London home, police have confirmed.

BBC News reports that ambulance crews were sent to her apartment, but the 27-year-old was pronounced dead.

Her death is being treated as unexplained, according to police.

Winehouse has struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. In May it was reported that she checked into a treatment facility after her father, Mitch, encouraged her to seek help. But she left rehab after a week, and resumed a European tour – which she ended prematurely More from CBSNews.Com

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The Moon will be 100% Full: July 14, 2011 at 11:39 PM Las Vegas time

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Adobe Moon in the City
Adobe Moon in the City

The Moon will be 100% Full: Thursday – July, 14 at 11:39 P.M. Las Vegas time.

From Western Washington University
“American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here are titles most closely associated with calendar months.” Two Native tribes are mentioned here – click the WWU link to access more information.”

BACK EAST
Mohawk, Eastern Woodlands

“The Mohawk Indians are part of the Iroquois Indian confederation. They referred to themselves as the Kaniengehaga, which means the people of the flint. The Mohawk Indians are one of the indigenous tribes that inhabited what is now the Mohawk Valley of upstate New York. The Tribes spread throughout New York State and even up into Canada. The word Canada is actually a Mohawk name in itself. Many people are familiar with the famous Mohawk Indian hairstyle, but not many people realize that the Mohawk Indians shaved their heads like this during times of war, in order to look fierce to their enemies” More from Native-Net.Org

Modern Mohawk Hairstyle
Classic Mohawk Hairstyle

According to Western Washington University the Mohawk word for July’s moon is: “ohiarihko” or “time of much ripening.”

OUT WEST
Zuni – Southwest, New Mexico

“The Zuni Pueblo is nestled in a scenic valley, surrounded by the enchanting mesas, located about 150 miles west of Albuquerque. The main reservation, is located in the McKinley and Cibola counties in the western part of New Mexico. The estimated number of acres encompasses about 450,000 acres. The tribe has land holdings in Catron County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona, which are not adjoining to the main reservation.” More from Ashiwi.Org

According to Western Washington University the Zuni name for July’s Moon is: “dayamcho yachunne” or “when limbs of trees are broken by fruit.”

Zuni Pueblo
Zuni Pueblo

This ring is very similar to a ring I purchased with Nickel Jackpot winnings at The Railroad Pass Hotel/Casino in in Henderson Nevada – in the mid-80s. The world-renown artist is Effie Calazava from Zuni Pueblo.

Effie Calazavas Double Snake Ring, Zuni
More Effie rings

From The Old Farmer’s Almanac
“Historically, the Native Americans who lived in the area that is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to the recurring full Moons.”

“Each full Moon name was applied to the entire month in which it occurred. These names, and some variations, were used by the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.”

According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac July’s Moon is: The Full Buck Moon. “Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month.”

From FullMoon.Info

Why corals adore the full moon
“Although, one could easily presume that full moon influences the reproduction of many creatures, this has really only been proven for some species. One assumes this is the case with wolves, specific insects or crabs and also many humans vow not being able to do anything other than to look for the closeness of the other (or the same) sex at full moon. But absolutely certain are scientist only about one animal species that may not even be considered an animal by many: the corals. Here it has been established that reproduction is dependent on water temperature and moon light” read more from FullMoon.Info

FullMoon.Inf
Western Washington University
The Old Farmer’s Almanac
NativeLanguages.Org
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July 4, 2011 – Celebrating The Country

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American Pride
American Pride

Fourth of July is Independence Day

“Independence Day honors the birthday of the United States of America and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It’s a day of picnics and patriotic parades, a night of concerts and fireworks, and a reason to fly the American flag.” more from USADotGov…

“Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson’s most enduring monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in “self-evident truths” and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. We invite you to read a transcription of the complete text of the Declaration.” more from USADotGov

FUN FACTS
“On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As always, this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country.” Fun facts from The US Census Bureau…

USA Dot.Gov – Official Website
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The Best Hotels In Las Vegas: This Week Caesars Palace Las Vegas

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Caesars Palace - file photo
Caesar's Palace - file photo

The following is a repost from About.Com
Zeke Quezada offers some good Las Vegas essential information.

Zeke’s Las Vegas Travel Blog
By Zeke Quezada, About.com Guide

What is the best hotel in Las Vegas? That is a question with no real right answer, but what is the best hotel in Las Vegas for you? That’s easier.

This Week’s Best Hotel in Las Vegas Pick: Caesars Palace Las Vegas

Yo[sic] have seen Caesars before, it’s been around forever, it was the example of a themed hotel before the volcano, the pirate ship or the Eiffel Tower. Caesars Palace is really a snapshot of Las Vegas over the past few decades and the one place in the center of the strip that seems to be ever expanding, ever changing and always keeping the idea of Las Vegas alive in your head.

Things to check out at Caesars Palace

The Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3
The Forum Shops
Wolfgang Puck’s Meatloaf at Spago
Matt Goss
The Garden of the Gods
Francois Payard and his ability to cook read more from Zeke including more “Best Hotels.”

Caesar’s Palace links on LasVegasBuffetClub.Com
Visit the main pages of LasVegasBuffetClub.Com