A few miscellaneous notes I forgot:

The metal bars that held up the Producers banners on Paris' Arc De Triomphe are sitting bare to the world. I'm guessing new banners with "starring Tony Danza!" will be coming soon but who knows. Either way, those rods are firmly attached onto the arc, so you'll wonder how good a job they'll do hiding the damage when they're gone.

NYNY has construction of some kind construction going on at the old blackjack/whatever space immediately next to the escalators on the upper level. I guess it took a man opening fire from that space for management to realize that it was being underutilized.

Interesting stuff! Isn't The Mirage about a year behind in re-doing the volcano? I sure hope they don't "improve" it like they did the front of TI.

The "BOYCOTT MGM" thing might be a result of the stalled culinary union negotiations. They're going to have a strike vote on September 12.

This is the LAX entrance bad photo, by the by, but it wasn't rotated 90 degrees to the left for some reason. I guess I forgot about it:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/show/4961?gallery_id=125

As far as the changes go, putting the nightclub line out here instead of in the casino is a great idea, though they might need to redo the placement of machines and signs and miscellaneous stuff nearby. It's kind of crowded with furniture in that area.

Detriot...OMG, Funny, I could not agree more. TI is horrible now. Yeah, I think City Center will be more crowded than Time Square on New Years Eve! What a mess.

Did the remove the Le Reve sign, because of Encore construction??? They were taking out trees and other plants in front of the Wynn Self Park garage a few weeks ago, and I wondered why.

Brian -

Yeah, all of that frontage from the self park entrance to Encore and even in the other direction is being re-done, new driveways, new landscaping, etc... Encore's going to have multiple car entrances/valets plus of course pedestrian access.

Hunter

Two new MGM-Mirage rumors, one is that Shintaro (at Bellagio across from Caramel next to Le Cirque) will be shut down and handed over to the Light Group.
Rumor two is that MGM-Mirage will not give in to the Culinary Union demands and is ready for a strike.

Isn't Shintaro going to be renamed 'Yellow Tail' and be a Light-managed sushi joint?

Yes, the name is not a definite yet, but this will give the Light Group 4 outlets almost next to each other at Bellagio.

Speaking of Shintaro, I ate there with some coworkers back some years ago, and I have to say that was the most overrated and overpriced restaurant I may have ever eaten at. It will not be missed, at least not by me.

Thanks to Hunter and others, we've had good discussion about how the interior of Encore will be laid out. What is almost as interesting to me is how the exterior will play out, particularly the Strip frontage. Wynn's resorts have been known to have the most cool exteriors....it'll be interesting to see what he had in store for his newest project.

Thanks for the report Mike.

"More the buffet at Luxor", dont know whether to laugh or cry, who comes up with this stuff? I would also suggest "yummy the buffet at Mandalay" and "grubby the buffet at Exal".

Agree with the other comments about the Treasure Island pirate village, it looks awaful, all the detail and colour was removed when they put in the awful new show. Oh and those ugly light things on the wooden pillars.

If this is the new Mirage volcano being installed, I fear for the worst, lets hope its not too bad. I also suspect the statues and that will be removed.

You know, MGM removed all pricing information from the Excalibur buffet entrance a few months ago. The big signs that used to list the prices were changed to just say the name of the joint. It seems to have worked to some extent, I see more people at the registers for that thing than I used to.

More Luxor news, maybe, ads for LAX advertise two other establishments in the corners, a bar I've read about here before but whose name escapes me, and "Company: An American Bistro."

I don't see squat about Aspen 702, which makes me wonder if that got cut.

Mike_ch:

Yes, Aspen 702 was dropped from the plans. The two venues accompanying LAX are Company restaurant and Noir Bar, a small, exclusive lounge.

My friend Mark Diederichsen was kind enough to allow me to re-publish some of his recent City Center shots:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/diederichsen

Also, they have been tagged for the various properties and also under August 2007, along with the other photos from this set:

http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/august2007

More recent Luxor events: I peeked behind the curtain at LAX's entrance, and while it's still under construction, think of an open space with a curving staircase and a couple of big, well, I don't know, arch-like light rigging. I mean, it's obviously not complete and everything was turned off, but what I saw back there reminded me of the entrance ramp rigging at a pro wrestling show. Hopefully it's better when it's all lit up.

It's also still where the RA entrance was, although that tunnel to the south of the main casino entrance will probably be what they use to route the line through on Friday nights, and I still think that's an excellent idea.

And having finally gotten a real chance to stop and stare at Flight, it's easily a very nice lounge. Not Parasol Up or anything, mind you, but way better than Aurora to look at.