This one gave me a good chuckle...

"Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs."

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:35 PM

First an update on this post about the guy who caught that big catfish in Alton, IL. I think these guys got you beat. Take a look at this puppy:


And now for the big update on this post about John Mayer and his new record. Well to go along with his new record he has a new band. Here's the skinny from Rolling Stone:

MAYER ROLLS OUT BLUES TRIO

The newly formed JOHN MAYER TRIO -- which features Mayer on guitar and vocals, STEVE JORDAN (BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, ROLLING STONES) on drums and PINO PALLADINO (the WHO, JEFF BECK) on bass -- will kick off a twenty-four-date North American tour September 6th in San Francisco. "I'm gonna go out and just play power-rockin', electric-guitar, in-your-face blues," Mayer told Rolling Stone. The tour, during which the trio will open three shows for the ROLLING STONES, will be followed by Mayer's new hard-rocking album "Continuum," due early next year.

F-ing sweet. Check out the John Mayer Trio (or JM3) Official Website here. Oh and of course they'll be touring. Here they are:


Not enough you say? How about the added bonus of hearing "Hummingbird" a song sure to be on the upcoming album.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:36 AM

I posted a while back about how I was creating a "Best of 2004" music collection. Just wanted to let everyone know that it's still in the works and I'm doing my best, but creating the graphic layout for the CD face and titling each track with song title and artist is taking quite a while. I've only received 4 responses so far on people who actually want a copy of this. I know there's more of you out there that won't pass up 12 free CD's.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 5:59 PM

Good news from Rolling Stone this week:

Led by COLDPLAY's "X&Y," which has sold more than one million copies in just two weeks, rock albums have been atop eight of the last nine pop charts. The rock blitz began with ROB THOMAS' "...Something to Be" in April and continued with BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, NINE INCH NAILS, DAVE MATTHEWS BAND, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and AUDIOSLAVE. "To quote LL Cool J, don't call it a comeback," says RICK RUBIN, who produced Audioslave's "Out of Exile" and co-produced System's "Mezmerize." "Rock will always be here. Unfortunately, much of the recording industry has turned away from rock. There's a misconception that the big pop and hip-hop albums sell more than the big rock records."

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:48 PM

Yes, I did it. I finally changed my blog layout. Not that I didn't like the old one, but something about it became FUBAR (click one of my archive links to see what I mean) and I couldn't find or correct the problem. I kinda like this one better anyway. So, tell me what you think, and let me know if you have any problems viewing it. I know that some browsers may not view it correctly (I know Firefox and Opera don't) but I can't be too concerned with 100% browser compatibility. Let me know if there are any broken links or other features. I'm still working out some of the kinks, but hopefully this baby will be working 100% by end of week.

UPDATE: It seems as though the problems I was having with my layout were actually due to a bug cause by the new "Add Image" function. Blogger fixed the bug and it looks like everything should work fine on all browsers. And after all that template work!!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 10:35 AM

After our peaceful 10 hours of sleep, we awoke Monday morning and headed straight back downstairs to the buffet at Harrah's for a late breakfast around noon. We then proceeded to split up into two groups. My mom and sister went shopping, while us boys (my Bro, my dad and I) decided to walk the strip.

We started out by hitting the "Carnaval Court", an outdoor flair bar at Harrah's with live music all day and most of the night. Some of the things those guys were doing were very impressive. And the music was all damn good too. I'm guessing some of the best cover bands in the world play in Vegas.

So with drinks in hand, the Nunn boys hit the strip. We walked most of the west side of the strip all the way from The Mirage (which was right across the street from our hotel) down to The Luxor. This means we hit Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, The Boardwalk, Monte Carlo, New York - New York, and Excalibur in between.

SIDE NOTE: I found out that while we were in Vegas, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. purchased Caesars Entertainment and merged to create the largest gaming corporation in the world. They now own 39 casinos just in North America, and in Vegas now control Bally's, Harrah's, The Rio, Paris, Caesar's Palace, The Flamingo, and The Hilton.

We simply walked and talked and admired the beautiful architecture, design and style of each casino (as well as admiring some of the pretty girls walking around as well). We stopped for a drink at every other casino to quench our thirst. Although 95 in Vegas feels like 75 in St. Louis, the dry air is hellish on your body's hydration level. So wisely, we drank more alcohol.

The Bellagio was by far the best all around hotel/casino we saw that day in my opinion. The style and elegance were unmatched. Every thing was perfect from the grand lobby and dancing waters down to the most meticulous details including the Bellagio cursive "B" logo being stamped in every ashtray sand where a cig butt never lingered for more than a few minutes.

We hit the roller coaster at NY-NY for a ride. Only one ride though since it was $12.50 a passenger just for one ride. Not a bad little coaster though.

Once we picked up our tickets for the Blue Man group at the Luxor, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and to change clothes to get ready for the evening.

We jumped the monorail and headed back to the Luxor to catch the 7:00 PM Blue Man Group show. Very intense production. Great live music. Would have liked to have been at least stoned for the show. But tons of fun nevertheless.

Monday was one of the few nights that we didn't have any dinner reservations. So after the show we headed to Mandalay Bay (which is connected to the Luxor via an indoor shopping mall type walkway) for some dinner. We ended up eating at The Border Grill, modern Mexican cuisine created by Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Pretty tasty eats all around, but specifically some damn good salsas and margaritas.

After dinner it was time for our first nightlife experience in Vegas. We headed to Rum Jungle, which was also in Mandalay Bay, since we were told that's where the party starts on Monday nights. A pretty neat club, atmosphere wise. Sheet glass waterfalls, girls dancing in hanging cages, nice dance floor, large bar, trapeeze girl swinging above the bar, nice mix of people in the crowd, etc. The music was certainly not for me though, too much rap. We did proceed to get nice and drunk there and ended up staying about 2 hours.

Once we left Rum Jungle, we proceeded to the Four Seasons hotel which was located at the top of the Mandalay Bay. Within the Four Seasons there exists a private club called the Foundation Room, which very few tourists know about. However, my Bro and I were wise enough to ask around to all the waiters and bartenders each day to see where the hotspots were. Everyone said hands down that the Foundation Room (see the slide show here)was the place to be on Mondays. Since Monday is usually industry night in most of the Vegas clubs, the Foundation Room opens up to the public.

The club itself is less of a dance club and more of a lounge. Lot's of upscale old-world furniture, fireplaces, art on the walls. The DJ was spinning some laid back house music and everyone was very relaxed. A perfect place for afterhours on a Monday night. Probably one of the best views of the strip that can be imagined from the balcony. Pretty much everyone there were Vegas locals. Bartenders, waiters, dealers, "entertainers" of various sorts. A couple of them were shocked to learn that we were tourists citing that it's rare that someone from outside Vegas ever even learns of this well kept secret.

At any rate, we had a great time and met some cool people there. One girl I met apparently is the lead singer in a retro new wave band and mentioned that she went to high school with a member of the Killers.

By 5 AM or so, I was pretty tanked, so my sis and I left and headed back to the hotel while my brother scoured the hotel for another club to go to. Once I got back I had sobered up enough to drink a couple more beers and lose $160 on quarter slots. After losing a days pay in less than and hour or so, I got a call from my brother informing me that he was at another afterhours club inside the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. So of course I hailed a taxi with beer in hand and headed back. Ahh the wonders of alcohol.

I honestly don't remember much after that, but I did wake up in my room on Tuesday morning. So I guess the night ended safely. Maybe...

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:51 AM

Last night I went with the family for a post-father's day dinner, movie outing. We all easily decided on seeing the new "Batman Begins" since it looked so damn cool in the previews. Well it certainly lived up to expectations.

An all star cast, a great story, special effects that were good but not overdone. By far the most realistic adaptation of a comic book to film ever done. That's the key in this film. Great sci-fi/fantasy/action-adventure flicks make the impossible seem attainable, the unbelievable seem plausible, and the supernatural seem wondrously real. All this without seeming overdone or too bombastic. For once an action film where you could feel real emotion.

I'd say it was the best of all the Batman movies so far, and maybe go as far as saying it's the best superhero film ever. Don't take it from me though, see for yourself.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 12:21 PM

We flew out of St. Louis at 7:00 am on Sunday 6/5/05 after I had a long night of partying at a going away party for my friends (Nick and Erin) who are moving up to Minnesota. On only two hours of sleep, I was on my way to Vegas.

We flew Southwest Airlines, and after a brief lay-over in KC, we arrived in Vegas around 11:30 am. My sister, who was flying in from Chicago, was supposed to meet us there at the airport baggage claim at around the same time we arrived. However, we had found out in KC that she had missed her plane due to over sleeping (it was her 21st B-day the night before after all). So we began our journey without her.

My dad had arranged for a limo to pick us up from the airport and give us a quick tour of the strip. Very nice! The weather wasn't as hot as I had expected either. Only about 85 degrees at noon when we left the airport, which with no humidity out there feels like about 75 in St. Louis.

We got to our hotel around 1 pm and quickly arranged for an early check in. We stayed at the Los Vegas Harrah's, nothing fancy but it was as close to free as you can get considering that my mom is a Diamond member of the Harrah's Total Rewards program. She's got (or had I should say) over 97,000 Total Rewards points. Which means the first thing we did after checking in was hit the free (for us anyway) buffet.

After stuffing down a couple plates of grub, we had to nap. Catch up on some lost sleep before the night began. We laid down around 2 pm and caught about 3 hours of Z's before having to wake up to get ready for our first night in Sin City.

We had tickets for Cirque Du Soleil's newest show "Ka" at the MGM Grand Hotel that night at 8:30. A damn fine show, and by far my favorite of all the shows we would eventually end up seeing that week. It was less circus and more martial arts oriented which was f-ing great. Kind of like the Matrix live. The scenery and technical aspects of the show are unbelievable. Over 65 in the cast and 168 stagehands on the crew! Highly recommended if you're going to see any shows in Vegas.

After the show we had reservations at The Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill at the MGM as well, in fact, it was only 20 yards or so from the Ka theater. The food was great, but certainly not as phenomenal as I expected it to be. Maybe my expectations were set too high.

After the food and drink, we decided to walk all the way back to our hotel (which was on the north end of the strip) all the way from the MGM Grand which is on the southern end. It didn't look like too far of a walk, and we wanted to get a good feel for what the strip was like at night.

I thought it would be a wider street (only three lanes each direction for the most part) with much more space to walk (the sidewalks aren't much bigger than your typical city sidewalks until you get near the doors of a hotel/casino). There's very few places to cross the strip on ground level due to the nature of the traffic there, so most of the sidewalks across the streets are elevated.

So we walked, and talked, and enjoyed our first views of Las Vegas after dark. The hooker mini-pimps (mostly illegal immigrants who are handing out little hooker advertisement cards much like baseball trading cards) were out in full force and very persistent. Flicking the cards between their fingers to grab your attention and then shoving them in your face once you look. Once you grab a handful from one guy, ten more guys are there instantly to fill your mitts with more. "Collect 'em all" I say.

Since everything in Vegas is so damn enormous, the walk was deceivingly long. Our hotel looked like it was mere 300 yards away, when in actuality it was closer to 3 miles. But at least we burned off most of our 1000 calorie dinner.

By the time we arrived back at the hotel, my sister had just arrived, a fashionable 12 hours late. She looked just the slightest bit hungover, but hey that's to be expected on your 21st b-day. By the time we greeted her and got ready to go out to the clubs for the evening, we were just done for. My bro and I agreed to just call it a night at 1 am. Pretty wussy of us I know. But after drinking for 10 hours the previous night, getting no sleep, flying, eating, walking, eating, drinking and then walking some more, we figured we'd better rest up now so we would be fresh for the next five days we had in front of us. So we slept.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:38 AM

Whoops! Looks like I mixed up those two headlines. They should look more like this:

Boy, 4, Dies After Disney Ride

&

Michael Jackson Cleared of All Charges

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:25 PM

Check out this new service offered by Google for those of us who don't want to pay out the ass to use web services on our cell phones. They've designed an SMS (Short Message Service) based internet query that can give you tons of different types of information just by sending and receiving text messages. Everything from business listings and driving directions to weather, movie times, and stock quotes.

Just enter your query as a text message, and send it to 46645 (GOOGL on most phones). You should get a response within about a minute. Pretty damn neat-o.

Checkout the Google SMS home page for more info about what it can do.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:47 AM

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert." - Pat Conroy

Hat tips to "The Turtle" for that one.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:29 AM

For those of you who weren't already in the know, I just got back from spending a week in Sin City. I'll be detailing my adventures soon. Probably one short post for each day there rather than one drawn out overly long post. That way it will come off looking like more actual content too.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:55 PM

Word to the wise: never have sex with your husband's best man, especially at your wedding.

Oh yeah, and if do ever encounter any marital problems of that sort, don't be a baby and run away from them.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 4:20 PM