Entertainer Nelson Sardelli is hosting a benefit for the "Las Vegas Italian Earthquake Relief Fund" on May 17, 2009, in the showroom at the Orleans Hotel/Casino.

Performers attending include Rich Little, Shecky Greene, Lance Burton, to name a few.

To see the details go to http://www.todayinlv.com.  Click on the current issue, then click over to page 21. 

It should be a lot of fun for a worthy cause!

  Had to take last week off due to getting my first seasonal cold which knocked me on my ass!

Yep, I've got to find the time to work on my site.  Plenty of things going on right now including some renovations to the homestead.  I hoping to get to working back on the site next weekend where I'll have 4 days off but I've learned not to plan too much!. 

Had a great Halloween though.  Tons of kids showed up all looking for cute in their costumes.  Went through 4 bags of candy which is great considering where I live!

Got another Bobby Darin CD - Bobby Darin Aces Back to Back.  Got a couple of more songs I didn't have before.

I think some of these songs came from his variety show - when are they going to be a box set - I'd be buying them.  With all these old TV shows becoming box sets I keep hoping I'll be seeing Darin's variety show soon.

The booklet that came with the CD had some great quotes but my favorite is as follows:

"I used to be pisssed off at Bobby Darin because he changed styles so much.  Now I look at him and think he was a fucking genius." - Neil Young.

Went to Vegas and had a fabulous time!  Unfortunately, when I got back I got sick with yet another cold.  Then to top it off, VISTA finally killed my computer.

Apparently, VISTA saw some sort of security threat and locked down my computer to the extent that I couldn't even get into it.  The repairman came out with all his override programs and it wouldn't let him in either.  I was starting to think I was dealing with HAL in Space Od. 2001.

The whole computer had to be wiped clean and VISTA had to be reinstalled.  I had backups of everything except my e-mails.  Now I have to reinstall all the programs, which of course includes the fight with VISTA to convince it to play nicely with all the programs.

Unfortuately, not only are all my e-mails gone, but all the addresses as well.

If any of you reading this belonged to my jokeline could you please e-mail me so I can take have your address as well.  Also, I had such a volume of e-mail when I got back to Vegas that I didn't get to them or the ones I still had to get to before that.

So, if you e-mailed me from April 1st, please e-mail me again.

What a pain in the ass!

After having a killer cold then a bacterial infection, I think I’m somewhat back to normal - if I was ever normal.

My kid and her fiance gave me my b-day gift early - an all paid week’s vacation in Vegas from April 20th to April 27.  I am sooooo looking forward to going back there and visiting my money!  Just counting the days.

Still having problems with one of my cats though.  Poor Ginger is still sick and the vet is trying his best to get her well.

Website is coming along.  Even though I haven’t made any additions, I am redoing it internally to fit the new encryption program, etc.  Hopefully by summer I’ll be back to working on it as I have tons of stuff to add to the Ladies of the Strip.  I just don’t want to add anything and then later on have to do it all over again when I fix the pages.

What a taste of heaven listening to all those songs and sure enough, there were some I had never heard him sing before.  This collection is a MUST for any Bobby Darin fan.  His son Dodd Darin says it best in the booklet that comes with the CDs (with some great photos and stories!).  I don't think he will be mad to recreate it here since it is the introduction to the incredible CDs:

"I let out a joyous howl when my father's manager/visionary career architect and dear friend Steve Blauner call to tell me that Rhino was putting together the collection you now hold in your hands.  With all due respect to the deserving artists who have already been honored with box set collections, I have long felt that my father's collection was overdue.  I would like to think that the sentiment expressed in the last sentence is shared by many and not simply the mad gushings of a very proud son!

This collection allows the listener to appreciate the wide range of musical styles my father was into and comfortable doing.  It is my belief and hope that people will be shocked by what they find here.  To the listener who picked up the set based on their love of Darin's early rock 'n' roll hits such as 'Splish Splash', 'Dream Lover', and 'Queen of the Hop', imagine their surprise when they hear Darin swing hard in the Broadway scene with the genius arranger Billy May.  Similarly, how about the reaction of the listener who relates to Darin for his classic 'Mack The Knife' and 'Beyond the Sea', only to slip in the next disc and hear the country & western tunes and Dylan-like protest material from the late 1960s!

My father loved all forms of music and was never afraid to experiment.  From his early defiance of the brain trust at Atlantic Records who advised him against going into adult music (Mack The Knife) to his being called a 'latter-day hippie' by his pal Dick Clark for his late-'60s message material.  He was constantly true to his instincts and his desire to grow.  I am very proud of this collection.  It represents the totality of his love of music and performing.  It is indeed his life's work.  Enjoy! - Dodd Darin"

I'm doing just that - enjoying that incredible voice at home and on the train.