THIS WEEK FEATURING: Designer Lingerie & Swim Show at The Venetian, BB King At The Hard Rock, Photoshop World Conference & Expo, The Skeptics Annotated Bible, What Not To Wear—In Saudi Arabia, Movies This Week, Body Responsibility, Anonymous Assignation Protocols, and more…

Lingerie Americas Las Vegas Trade Show. The West Coast premier Women's and Men's Intimate Apparel and Swimwear Trade Show was held August 27–28 at The Venetian. I was an invited guest of CURVENV, returning to Las Vegas for its second market exhibition occupying the center of the main floor in the convention area. CURVENV offered a large array of 183 brands to retailers. The CURVENV brand roster is 45% American and 55% from the rest of the world, a balanced and comprehensive mix that provides a global window into the latest fashion trends.

I spent two days in lingerie heaven and received a gift bag that included a Mary Green eye mask (I don't need to decorate those plain eye masks from the airlines anymore). Each day there was a gourmet breakfast and lunch, a private lounge sponsored by Wear?Canada!, an internet café, and daily seminars on the fashion industry. The most interesting seminar was on a newly-designed bra for "purchased" breasts by Le Mystère held on Monday, August 27 at 3:00 p.m. There were 3 daily, fully-accessorized fashion shows highlighting a specific category.

CURVENV's 2008 plans include the Fall-Winter 2008 Market Week in New York on February 3, 4, 5 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion and in Las Vegas again on February 14, 15, 16 at the Venetian.

The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel. Tonight, Monday, September 3rd, we are going to see BB King & Al Green (with special guest Sebastian Maniscalo) at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The reigning king of blues, BB King has been entertaining fans for more than half a century with Billboard-topping R&B classics including To Know You is to Love You and his 1988 hit single, When Love Comes to Town. I've seen BB King once before and he is fantastic! He certainly deserves his title! BB will be joined by Al Green, American gospel and soul-singer in this very special performance. These two music legends will be assisted by Sebastian Maniscalo, one of today's hottest rising comedians. Tickets are $98, $128 and $148. www.hardrockhotel.com/rock_thejoint.php

Kings of Leon. Coming next Tuesday, Sept.11th at 8 p.m. to The Joint is Kings of Leon. (With special guests Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Manchester Orchestra). Southern rockers Kings of Leon are three brothers and one cousin from Tennessee. Kings of Leon newest album, Because of the Times displays the band's musical freedom and bolder direction. They will be joined by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) an American rock band known for performing tunes associated with garage rock, folk revival, blues and often religiously inspired lyrics. Tickets are $29.50 and $55 (reserved seats). www.hardrockhotel.com/rock_thejoint.php

The Hard Rock is also hosting Friday Night Live—ummer Concert Series by the Pool with September's line-up Snoop Dogg on Friday, Sept. 7th at 10 p.m., The Donnas on Sept. 14th, Kinky on Sept. 21st, and Louis XIV on Sept. 28th.

National Association for Body Responsibility. Want to fit into that new lingerie? Or buy a pair of pants without a drawstring? Rob Stevens is on a campaign to put an end to fat people. Rob used to be morbidly obese at 5'9" and over 300 pounds. Now he is the founder of NABR.com and the author of the self-help book, The Overfed Head. There are a lot of fat tourists in Las Vegas, but according to a new study, Mississippi is the fattest state in the nation. Mississippi is the first state where more than 30 percent of adults are considered obese! So, if you are merely fat, go to Mississippi. You'll be one of the sexy ones. www.thintuition.com/products.php?category_id=103

Photoshop World Conference & Expo. Most, if not all, of Wednesday's pre-workshops at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo at Mandalay Bay are sold out. Both evening parties (Photoshop World Party at $49.00 a ticket and Photoshop World Pro Pass at $100 a ticket) are sold out. On September 6 through 8 the Conference officially opens beginning with two new courses called, The Art of Photoshop and Photoshop Finishing Touches with Bert Monroy.

To navigate around the Photoshop class schedule you have to know the code. There are many different "tracks" in Photoshop: Creativity Track, Productivity Track, Learn to make these two powerful graphics applications perform better together.

Instructor: Bert Monroy
Track: Photoshop® Techniques Track
Photoshop® CS3 Extended - Special Interest Track, Photoshop® & Digital Photography Track, Photoshop & Digital Photo Techniques Track, and George will discuss and show samples of the different software programs to interpolate images to prints from 17x20 to 60x90, plus he'll discuss the common problems associated with printing panoramas. He'll share a few tricks strokes and faux double mat tricks, and tips on the proper handling and displaying of large prints. As an Epson Stylus Pro and a Canon Print Master, George will cover his experience with both Canon and Epson large format printers, including the differences between them.

Instructor: George Lepp
Track: Photoshop & Digital Photo Techniques Track
Adobe® Web Tools Track. There will be several special events including for beginners, Photoshop For Geeks Scripting Class and Photoshop for Geeks Hands-on Scripting Class (Intermediate) and Adobe Birds of a Feather: For Engineers, Architects and Manufacturing Professionals. This is just a sample of Thursday's seminars!

Unfortunately, there is no class for me called, I Just Brought Photoshop, What Do I Do Now?

Friday's schedule brings out the serious Photoshoppers with "Tracks" titled Using Photoshop Extended in Science & Research and Invisible Light in Black and White, A Fantastic Voyage Into Scientific and Biomedical Imaging and Creating Photographic Fine Art Montages. There are some gentler seminars "tracks" called Photoshop Killer Tips for Photographers and Lighting Without Lights and Top 10 Photoshop Techniques. Photoshop World Update

I'll report next week how I did amongst the Photoshop Geeks.

Movies This Week. The Nanny Diaries (YES), Balls of Fury (NO), 3:10 To Yuma (YES), Halloween (YES), Death Sentence (YES).

3:10 to Yuma. Russell Crowe and director James Mangold resurrect the Western! But Ben Foster as Crowe's devoted wingman almost walks off with the movie. You will see it twice. Here is one remake that delivers. I never saw the Van Heflin-Glenn Ford original and neither did you. (You'll have to rent it on Netflix.) So this is a brand new Western for those of us under 75. And I am sure that the new screenwriters bumped up not only the sexual quotient, but the dialogue. All the scenes between Crowe and Bale are terrific. There's dialogue between Crowe and Bale discussing money that you will love.

Thankfully, the director has studied Crowe's sexual appeal and dwells on his glances, smiles, and seductive line delivery. Crowe knows exactly what he is doing—he turns every male co-star into playful prey. As notorious outlaw Ben Wade, Crowe is like a big alley cat teasing motherless kittens. He does it here with Christian Bale, whose role as rancher Dan Evans is callused by failure, debt, and cowardliness. It certainly doesn't help that Bale's character has two sons: a sickly young one and a 14-year-old who is ashamed of him. This is the kind of guy who comes up against Crowe's sadistic, infamous outlaw who happens to be proud of his double-digit killings. When Wade is caught, Evans volunteers, for a badly needed $200, to join the posse that must take the outlaw to the town of Contention and get him on the 3:10 prison train to Yuma. The Western is back.

"3:10 To Yuma" Trailer [02:30]

I'm taking the stagecoach to Nairobi! We're going on a trek to East Africa next month (spending several days on our own in Nairobi!) and I was horrified to read the State Department's latest travel advisory which issued this very stern warning: "Kenya's crime and trans-national terrorism ratings both remain at critical levels. The State Department updated the Travel Warning for Kenya to note the sharp increase in violent crime. The greatest threats in Kenya are road safety, crime and terrorism. The most common crime in Kenya (especially in Nairobi) is carjacking in order to commit an armed robbery. In virtually every instance, carjackers use weapons to rob their victims.

"Criminals who commit these crimes will not hesitate to shoot a victim who is the least bit uncooperative, or may appear to hesitate before complying with his/her assailant. This includes victims who may be complying, but who must do something like unfastening a seat belt before getting out of the car. During a carjacking, if you must do anything as a prerequisite to following carjackers' instructions, be sure to tell them what you are doing, and assure them you are complying."

Nairobi has such a distinction as being a crime-ridden, dangerous city with "notoriously high levels of violent armed robberies, burglaries, and carjackings" that it has earned the nickname "Nairobbery" and a UN "Status C" ranking as among the most insecure cities in the world! Baghdad, I'm prepping myself for you! (Pictured: A photo of Nairobi's famous City Market that I'll probably never visit.)

Death Sentence. I watch CBS's 48 Hour Mystery, NBC's Dateline, and ABC's Primetime: Crime and always wonder why aged parents do not seek a more satisfying solution when the lousy spouse kills their son or daughter. Since personal revenge is very rare, the police must be doing a terrific job in promising that life in prison is more rewarding than a bloody death at the hands of a grieving parent.

Some killers spend decades not even getting charged with the crime. How do parents go on knowing their child's killer is free to enjoy life, even marrying again? A terminally ill or old parent could do a lot of damage.

Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) agrees with me on retribution. (God is busy. Sometimes He needs help.) Nick and his wife Helen have two sons, but dote on their eldest son who is promising athlete. Rather cruelly, they seem to ignore the quiet, more ordinary son. After a sports game in an unfamiliar part of town, Nick stops for gas and his son is viciously murdered by a gang member during a gang initiation.

The D.A. lays out the reality of the law to Nick telling him he should agree to a plea deal of a few years in prison for killer. There is a real possibility that a jury trial may set him free. Instead of naming the guy as his son's killer, Nick refuses to identify him. The killer walks, but Nick goes after him. In a violent struggle, Nick stabs him to death. The gang's leader incites his gang to avenge the death.

Bacon throws himself into the role showing the fear and then shock of actually killing someone. When he shaves his head and puts away his business suit, we know there will be an uncompromising solution.

"Death Sentence" Trailer [02:25]

Obsession With Foreskin. History International's Naked Archaeologist went to Israel to investigate the mythology of King David. Producer, director, and star Simcha Jacobovici was interested in King David's stash of enemy foreskins. I did some research and found The Skeptics Annotated Bible Web site. This is the only way to read the Bible! An adorable little icon says, "David Mutilates 200. Gets Married."

1 Samuel 18. 18:25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 18:26 And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son in law: and the days were not expired. 18:27 Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife. skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1.html There is also a Skeptics Annotated Koran. skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/index.htm

What Not To Wear—In Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially banned foreigners from bringing in Bibles, crucifixes, Stars of David and other non-Islamic religious items. (I looked all over Egypt, Turkey, and Mali and could not find one Islamic religious item representing Mohammed—even with his face covered with a veil or painted white. John had no luck in Afghanistan either.) The Muslim country threatens to confiscate these items from foreign visitors along with other prohibited items such as narcotics, firearms and pornography, according to Saudi Arabian Airlines, the country's national carrier.

An official from the Saudi Consulate in New York said that foreigners wanting to bring a Bible or wearing a crucifix or Star of David around their neck would face problems with Saudi authorities.

This new ruling comes as Saudi Arabia has been pushing forth initiatives to increase tourism this summer by easing certain travel procedures such as issuing group visas to foreigners through tour operators and granting longer entry visas. The Saudi Supreme Commission for Tourism aims to boost the number of foreign tourists to 1.5 million annually by 2020 by banning non-Islamic religious items.

I had to tear out the page with Dalai Lama's likeness in my Lonely Planet travel guide in the fear that it would be confiscated by authorities and I would be thrown in a Chinese prison.

Protocol for Having Anonymous Sex in a Public Restroom. Thanks to 62-year-old Senator Larry Craig of Idaho pleading guilty in August to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after being arrested trolling for sex at the Minneapolis airport, we now know the protocol for having anonymous sex in a men's public restroom.

There is even a name for public sex—it's called "cottaging."

Men seeking sexual contact with men in public restrooms must adhere to a highly structured and sequential pattern of interaction. These "scripts" generally involve eye contact, movement, and position in the restroom, and very rarely include any verbal exchange.

The secret signals, what to do with the roller bag, the toe-tapping and hand—palm up—sliding technique, are out of the stall.

According to the undercover cop who was the target of Craig's cruising, he recognized the tapping "as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct."

The hand gesture is regarded as an invitation to kneel on the floor while putting one's genitalia under the partition to be fondled or fellated.

In a widely seen outdoor press conference, Craig, accompanied by his wife, declared: "Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay," He then explained why he kept the arrest a secret. "I wasn't eager to share this failure, but I should have anyway—because I am not gay!"

There is a clear distinction in Craig's (and other men's) mind. Whatever would have gone on, he's not gay.

There is a new clinical definition between "gay" and "straight": Craig is "a man who has sex with other men" (MSM) but identifies himself as straight. WebMd Medical News, Sept. 18, 2006, stated the results of a New York City survey: Nearly one in 10 men who say they're straight have sex only with other men. And 70% of those straight-identified men having sex with men are married. In fact, 10% of all married men in this survey report same-sex behavior during the past year.