i was reading through an old industry newsletter (written before youtube got purchased by google) and found this great quote:

"The viral video space is so hot right now; it's like Hansel from the movie 'Zoolander,'" said Aram Sinnreich, managing partner of RadarResearch, referring to the 2001 comedy about competition in the modeling business. "I wouldn't be surprised to see (online video market leader) YouTube receive a bid of $1 billion. Whether the company is worth it is another question."

___________________________________

this past week has been pretty amazing. i went to las vegas last wednesday for a vendor trip, and stayed at the wynn which is very, very lovely. there was a lot of hullabaloo about it when it opened because it was so very expensive to build, but i actually didn't think it was much fancier than the bellagio. if i was able to afford to stay anyplace in vegas, i'd still choose THE hotel (the four seasons). however, when you're in vegas, i believe you should spend as little time in your hotel room as possible, so i will never spend my own hard-earned money on a ridiculously fancy room. it was darn nice to stay in one last week, though!

we went to a few comedy shows, since i was there for the comedy festival as a guest of AOL. the first night that we were there, the two shows we were offered were 'tom joyner’s oh oh oh comedy show' or don rickles. i have to admit, i knew that tom joyner would be more popular, and that it would be much more -- shall we say? -- contemporary. however, i also know that don is a living legend, with not many years left of performing, so i was one of only half a dozen people in our 100+ person group that chose to see rickles instead of the joyner show. we were seated in the front row, which was a bit scary since he picks on the audience. however, the couple i was sitting with was jewish (as is don) so he didn't pick on our group very badly, and kept referring back to the couple i was with, giving them tips on their relationship (in a very -- shall we say? -- don rickles way). don kept talking about his time with frank sinatra and old vegas, and i kinda started feeling bad about all of the old places that have been torn down to make room for the mega-resorts like the wynn. not bad enough to want to move to an older hotel, but it did make me want to find out more about the great old hotels of the early vegas heyday.

another night we saw bill maher, who was pretty darn good. of course, i knew i'd agree with pretty much every word out of his mouth, so that helped.

in order to get a bit of non-comedy entertainment in, i went with a much smaller group to see prince's new show. i wish i could say that it was uber-awesome, since the club that has been customized for the show was really cool, and i really like prince, but he has kinda weirded out in the past few years.

here's a bit of his recent bio from allmusic.com:
In the fall of 2001 he released the controversial Rainbow Children, a jazz-infused circus of sound trumpeting his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that left many longtime fans out in the cold. He further isolated himself with 2003's N.E.W.S., a four-song set of instrumental jams that sounded a lot more fun to play than to listen to.

so yeah, he didn't really play much of his old stuff at the show (four or maybe five songs) and he did throw out a few lines about scripture... however, he still rocks pretty dang hard and jammed out into the audience, walking right by me. sweet!

the last night in town we went to the big 'official' after-party for the comic relief benefit, which was as star-studded as comedy events go, i'd guess. sarah silverman was walking around, as was bill maher, dane cook, billy crystal and a bunch of other random celebs. at one point, a member of the group i was with bumped someone and a bunch of glasses fell off of a tray. a guy in the group next to us helped my friend pick up the glasses and then made some cheesy comment about teamwork, and we noticed it was super-hottie ed burns. mmmmm...

on the down-side, when the clock struck 12 that night, we were standing right near dane cook. it had just become my birthday and our group was pestering me to take a photo with him, so i went over and asked. there had been skanky girls running up to him and bugging him all night, so i thought it was very adult and appropriate to ask, and then the bastard said "actually, i have to make a phone call right now, but i'll come over in a minute" and walked away. he walked about 10 feet away, made his call, then walked farther away so he wasn't as close to our group anymore (but was not at all far). the group i was with -- which included a bunch of AOL folks, including one of the comedy programming guys -- was pretty miffed. we all decided that he's overrated (and not very hot in person). i didn't even want a damn photo with his big head anyhow.

that night we ended up hopping around the strip until after 5 am. we didn't really go that wild, but there was just so much to see... when i got up then next morning to leave the hotel around 9:30, the hotel was much quieter and there were a lot less people around than there had been 5 hours prior. i love that town...