December '07 Entertainment—Victoria Alexander's Viewpoint on Vegas Column

Movies This Week, Company American Bistro at Luxor, Fish Camp at Town Square, Mute Stones, Alistair Appleton drinks Ayahuasca, and more…

Movies This Week.

Youth Without Youth (YES)

Charlie Wilson’s War (YES)

The Golden Compass (YES)

Sweeney Todd (YES)

Grace Is Gone (NO)

Water House (Nice Family Film, and Atonement (YES)

Company American Bistro at The Luxor. On Wednesday night, we had two VIP Press Restaurant Openings. First, we went to the newly re-designed Luxor, which is moving towards a younger class of patrons.

Company American Bistro, right alongside LAX nightclub, is their newest restaurant at Luxor. For its Grand Opening, it celebrity investors Nicky Hilton, Nick Lachey, and Wilmer Valderrama in attendance.

More important, the restaurant is headed by Executive Chef Adam Sobel (photos in his immaculate kitchen with his top waitress), formerly of Restaurant Guy Savoy. The 10,000-square-foot restaurant is beautiful, the wait staff very, very solicitous and the Executive Chef, Adam Sobel, was terrific! I stopped him and said, “Gordon Ramsey is my new crush. I worship him.” He replied: “Gordon Ramsey has nothing over me.” I then asked to see his kitchen. “Absolutely!” Isn’t that the sweetest thing! Adam also said his manager had worked for Gordon. http://www.luxor.com/dining/

Company American Bistro has a fireside lounge surrounded by aspen trees and hurricane lamp candles. The main dining room is highlighted by a state-of-the-art wine wall and silver-leafed chandeliers. Patrons are ensconced in custom made high-back leather chairs and cozy couches.

Fish Camp. Chef Louis Osteen Opens Two Restaurants in Las Vegas. After the dramatic fare at Company American Bistro, we took off for Fish Camp at Town Square. Chef Louis Osteen has opened his two signature restaurants at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. While the menu at Louis’s Las Vegas features upscale, classical regional recipes, Fish Camp is a loud, boisterous affair meant for having fun, great food, and dancing. With a 350 seat capacity and live entertainment Friday and Saturday nights, it is the impressive seafood that sets Fish Camp apart from the other fish establishments in town. “Deas Guys” from Hilton Head, South Carolina were on hand to entertain the revelers as the crowd danced to classic rock.

With gaining access to the American Bistro kitchen, I asked Chef Louis for a photo inside his kitchen. These kitchens are nothing like the kitchens on Gordon Ramsey’s “Kitchen Nightmares.” This is the series, and I’m even watching old episodes on BBC America, that has replaced “Most Evil,” 48 Hours Mystery, and “Lockdown” as my favorite show.

Mute Stones. I love this blind item. But could anyone really be walking around giving out Mute Stones? Where do we get them? This blind item comes from www.laineygossip.com. “...Yet another star who stalks the set like a tyrant, yet another star who won’t deign to speak to the regular folk. Seems she considers conversation with her a privilege but the honor is granted sparingly and only through "Mute Stones". Seriously. She carries around what people on set have taken to calling Mute Stones and when she isn’t in the mood to converse with someone, she will silently hand over the Mute Stone – those in possession of a Mute Stone are not permitted to speak to her until she takes it back. Perhaps it’s a trick she can pass on to The Unfunny Douche who fired a dude recently for simply looking at him. It’s hard to believe, I get it. You can’t believe people are capable of acting so appallingly. But there are two crews over a hundred strong that can vouch for it, word for word.” Lainey’s guess is Ashley Judd, since Lainey says “She is known to act like a witch.”

The Man Who Drank the Universe. A link to a film by Brown Eyed Boy & Alistair Appleton was sent to me by Silvia Polivoy since I am a member of the ayahuasca.tribe.net. The 34 minute 17 second video details the October 2004 adventure of Alistair Appleton, a British TV presenter who agreed to drink the hallucinogenic tea with 10 other participants under the watchful eye of Argentinian psychotherapist Silvia Polivoy. the man who drank the universe- Google Video

What? You Didn’t Serve Thanksgiving Monkey? A few weeks ago I wrote in TDH about “bushmeat,” so I was surprised to read about a legal case in New York City regarding a woman, Mamie Manneh (she has nine children!), who was charged with meat smuggling that has touched off issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation.

The case "appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product," Manneh’s defense attorney Jan Rostal said. The federal prosecution also has dampened spirits at the church in Staten Island where Manneh and other African immigrants once packed the pews to practice a religion blending Christianity and tribal customs. One of the few worshippers left, Leona Artis, says the congregation's appetite for monkey meat is deeply misunderstood.

"Where some people have turkey, we'll have monkey meat," Artis said. "Nobody ever ate it, got sick and died from it. I've been eating it all my life. It's delicious."

The monkey meat case dates to early 2006, when federal inspectors at JFK Airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes from Guinea and addressed to Manneh. Stashed underneath the smoked fish, the customs inspectors found what West Africans refer to as bushmeat: "skulls, limbs and torsos of non- human primate species" plus the hoof and leg of a small antelope, according to court papers.”

We All Want Superpowers. Stephan Gaghan, author of “Blink,” has written a screenplay about a 32 year-old slacker (to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio) who can read minds by observing people’s faces. The one person he can’t decipher is a sexy exchange student who turns out to be only 16.) His father wants to use his abilities to buy a steel company and cancel its pension and health plans.

“Youth Without Youth.” Francis Ford Coppola returns to directing and screenwriting after a ten year absence with “Youth Without Youth,” The film begins in 1938 in Bucharest, Romania. Dominic (Tim Roth) is a 70-year-old linguistics scholar who, failing to complete his life’s work, plans on committing suicide. Walking across a street, he is struck by lightning and miraculously survives.

Some time ago I made an intense study of the effects of being struck by lightning (see photo of a lightning survivor) since reading the complete works of Martin Luther and learning about Lightning Shamans. Luther’s sudden conversion had a profound effect on Western history and the Catholic Church. Luther was preparing to become a lawyer. On July 2, 1505, in a field on the way to the university, Luther was caught in a terrible thunderstorm. He was struck by lightning and thrown to the ground. Luther’s companion was killed at his side. Close to death, he cried out: "Help me, St. Anne; I will become a monk." We all now what happened after that.

In an attempt to explain away the miraculous nature of St. Paul’s sudden conversion on the road to Damascus, a scientific paper proposed that St. Paul was struck by lightning. The prevalent symptoms in lightning injuries are tinnitus, blindness, confusion, amnesia, cardiac arrhythmias, and vascular instability. Severe damage to the central nervous system and extensive burns are commonplace.

But not a voice from Heaven.

Ancient people, living predominately outdoors, would have recognized the signs of lightning injuries. Paul staked his legitimacy to apostleship (ranking himself alongside the apostles) by declaring it came directly from Jesus. Not from a sun flare. Not from a bolt of lightning.

However, if Paul had survived a lightning strike, it would have been considered an amazing feat of good fortune. People do survive lightning strikes, and there would have been no need for Paul to attribute his survival to the generosity of a crucified prophet.

The ancient Greeks believed a person struck by lightning possessed magical powers. Throughout the world in tribal cultures, Lightning Shamans (shamans who have been struck more than once) are revered and feared as the mightiest of shamans.

Lightning injuries affect 800 to 1000 persons per year in the U.S.; and there are estimated 1000 fatalities worldwide each year. The physical problems associated with lightning injuries are serious and often life-long. Yet, a few people do attribute their awakened psychic abilities to being struck by lightning. In 1959, Brazilian twelve year old Thomaz Morais was stuck by lightning. Soon after, Morais developed paranormal gifts, which increased as he grew older. Today, Morais is a healer, psychic surgeon and, most astonishingly, has ability to materialize objects.

Dominic, completely bandaged due to the severe condition of his burned body, begins to show signs of awareness. Soon he baffles not only his doctor, but the entire country, by quickly recovering and growing younger.

His subconscious physically materializes another more sinister Dominic, as his mentor and nemesis. The Nazis become interested in studying Dominic and use a spy, the Woman In Room 6, representing Eve, The Whore of Babylon and Madonna, as an instrument to seduce him into giving up his secret of reverse aging. Dominic has had an unhappy life in his unfulfilled scientific work and the loss of the woman, Laura, forty years ago! He never got over Laura and has an excuse – he’s got a grudge against the world.

With the Nazis wanting to kidnap Dominic, he escapes to Switzerland where he creates fake identities for himself and uses his paranormal skills at the casino to pay his bills. He finds that he has extraordinary abilities to hold a book and know all its contents. He can heal. He understands and speaks any language.

But he is still a miserable old man. He finds no joy in his second chance at being a young man with miraculous abilities.

Hiking along a winding road, he encounters two women who stop him for directions. Their car goes off the road in the approaching storm. One woman dies and the other woman, Veronica (who is Laura’s double), is struck by lightning.

Upon returning to consciousness, Veronica starts speaking Sanskirt and tells everyone her name is Rupini and she is a seventh century disciple of Chandrakirti, abbot of Nalanda University and a disciple of Nāgārjuna and the most famous member of what the Tibetans came to call the Prasaṅgika school of Madhyamaka. He was an authority on Emptiness Yoga.

Rupini is a boon to Dominic’s research since she starts speaking ancient languages. Soon Rupini will be moving further back in time to our first stirrings of language. When Veronica is not channeling Rupini, she is a lovely young woman and Dominic, now in his 80’s, falls in love with her.

While Dominic is a sour man his doppelganger is always voyeuristically nosing around his romance with Veronica.

Though in his 80’s he is getting younger and begins noticing his vampiric effect on Veronica. As she heads back in linguistic time, she starts getting older. And, since beauty is really supreme over all things, Dominic realizes he must abandon his work and leave Veronica, so she can return, not to the “Eternal Return”, but her youth and beauty.

“Youth Without Youth” is based on a novella by Mircea Eliade. I have read Eliade’s “The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History.”

In his work on the history of religion, Eliade is most highly regarded for his writings on Shamanism, Yoga and what he called The Eternal Return — the implicit belief that religious behavior is not only an imitation of, but also a participation in, sacred events.

So Eliade certainly was aware that he was laying bare his psychological profile in “Youth Without Youth.” I am sure a psychologist would have a lot to say about the Evil Twin, Dangerous and Nameless Nazi Woman Spy, and the notion of youth and beauty before all else.

Coppola has not cashed in. He is doing exactly what he wants to do giving us a film that succeeds brilliantly on its own terms. It is beautifully filmed and striking in its haunting themes. “Youth without Youth” succeeds where other films in this genre have failed.