Boston bombing survivor soars in Las Vegas
In 2013, professional ballroom dancer Adrianne Haslett-Davis lost her left leg to the terrorist attack that bent but never broke Boston.
Since then, seizing life on a carbon-fiber blade prosthetic, the 35-year-old motivational speaker has climbed Cayambe volcano in Ecuador, and in April she returned to the scene of the tragedy, the Boston Marathon, to run 26.2 miles on a pained and swollen stump.
On Wednesday, she walked into Vegas Indoor Skydiving and let the 22-foot-high wind tunnel lift her into the air.
Arms outstretched.
Free from the gravity of a wary world.
She smiled.
Eyes open, looking forward.
BACK TO BUSINESS
Drai’s nightclub rapper Tyga paid off his $480,000 court judgment to a former Malibu landlord, so a judge has dropped an arrest warrant.
The landlord had sought the warrant after Tyga spent $220,000 buying a Maybach for girlfriend Kylie Jenner instead of settling with him.
The rapper’s next Vegas gig is Aug. 26 at the Cromwell club.
SHOT ACROSS THE BOW
In a rare public slap at a rival hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel on Thursday slammed MGM properties in this joking/not-joking tweet:
“Unlike some people we know whose names we won’t mention, parking is still #free at Hard Rock Vegas.”
The Hard Rock tweet ends with a winking-tongue-out emoticon and purple heart, as if to say, “Haha, we’re all just kidding around.”
One commenter piled on, complaining that if you lose an MGM “parking ticket,” you get charged $30.
“Thanks for resisting the urge to rip off your customers,” another tweeter piled on.
The MGM — the only big player charging for parking on the Strip — hasn’t tweeted back.
GIVE A HOOT
Political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, for the London Guardian newspaper, has let us know a TV producer just isn’t into Vegas’ Hooters.
She and other journalists were at Caesars Palace on Friday to cover Bill Clinton and independent presidential candidates Dr. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson speaking to the Asian American Journalists Association.
On Thursday, Siddiqui was speaking as an expert on MSNBC. Behind her head on TV was an image of the Las Vegas Strip at night. But:
“Funny thing about being in Vegas: My shot was strategically placed to hide the giant Hooters building behind me,” Siddiqui wrote on social media, adding a crying-laughing emoji.
OK, out-of-towners, so, Hooters is like rated G compared to so many other things. Live a little.
Also, it doesn’t sound like Siddiqui is a fan of our city, since she Instagrammed that the Bellagio Fountains are “The one cool thing about Vegas.”
“You clearly don’t know Vegas,” fired back Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post.
TAKING A BOW WOW
Rapper Bow Wow joined Jermaine Dupri’s entourage for a Tao restaurant dinner Thursday before performing with Dupri on stage at Tao nightclub.
Bow Wow (aka Shad Moss, 29) recently said he’ll retire after his next Snoop Dogg-produced album, leading to such headlines as:
“Rapper Bow Wow retiring makes Internet laugh” (CNN).
CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES
A collective of tattooed musicians raised a few toasts at one of the main casino-floor bars Friday to celebrate a birthday and a marriage.
It was the birthday of Telle Smith, from The Word Alive, and the marriage of drummer Dylan Taylor. Alex Howard, guitarist for Sleeping with Sirens and Conditions, was there, too.
But to be honest, metal and punk rockers were everywhere at the hotel, because the Warped Tour staging was outside the Hard Rock.
Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous
